Tale of a Tack
by StormyTitan7
Summary: Pre Megumi/Oniwabanshu arc. Megumi wants to escape from Kanryu, but how? She formulates a plan like the cunning fox she is, but it requires the help of one of the Oniwabanshu. None of them would ever set her free willingly, but perhaps one could be tricked. One named Beshimi, perhaps. Rated T for sexual humor and slight language. Please R&R *Last Chapter Now Up!
1. Chapter 1: Insults

_**By StormyTitan**_

_**It should be mentioned before we begin that the story is told from Megumi and Beshimi's (if anyone remembers him) perspectives. 'Tale of a Tack' is also made with the anime in mind and not the manga, though I love the manga version of the Megumi arc just as well. The anime has more Beshimi in general, I feel, though the manga did have that one moment with him laying in his room...  
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_**Regardless, I humbly beg you to stick with it because, I assure you, it will surprise you. I made this fanfiction because Beshimi is an under appreciated and little explored character. And as I was watching the anime, it was actually hearing him call her 'sweetheart' and 'cutie' that got me thinking...why? But we ALL know he swore to get Megumi back to the mansion (because he let her escape somehow) and he dies from Kanryu shooting him (DAMN HIM!) So this story fills, or rather adds, to what happened between. **_

_**The bottom line though? I love Ruro-Ken. I love the Oniwabanshu. So I make fan fiction! Enjoy and Review please :D**_

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><p><strong>In this chapter: Megumi's good doctor friend just died, murdered by the 'pig' Kanryu. Above her, not to her knowledge, Beshimi watches her like he was ordered to, making sure she never makes a move toward escaping. He's forbidden by the Okashira to speak to her, but then again, he always had been a mess-up and never managed to do things quite right.<strong>

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><p>Chapter 1: "Insults"<p>

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><p>The wood chipped in Beshimi's hand, "Tsk!"<p>

The pellet that was only beginning to form into a tack now had a long crack in its side where the kunai's deadly sharp point had caught the grain. Continuing to carve around such a deep mark would be futile. Even if finished, the crooked tack would never be flicked properly. The cat-like gaze hardened and narrowed into a deep glare.

Th ninja allowed the small piece of wood to fall to his feet with the other defected tacks, earlier failures, before Beshimi adjusted his weight uncomfortably. His eyes trailed over the shadows as he positioned his eyes to look through the crack between the ceiling tiles he displaced.

Megumi Takani was still there, by the window, forlornly looking out.

Upset at the recent death of the doctor Kanryu hired, watching her had suddenly become five times easier. She stayed in one spot now, in front of the window, instead of moving from one room to the other in her 'never have enough time in the day' manner.

The mansion also became quieter with her new found depression. She wasn't demanding certain things, or scolding the doctor about how he took care of himself, and in most cases the silence would be welcomed in Beshimi's eyes (or rather, ears). However, it wasn't a comfortable silence that he could enjoy, but a throat gripping one that made him wonder if his breathing was loud enough for the whole house to hear. An ink brush landing on the ground hairs first would probably make a sound that would make the whole place yelp in surprise at the suddenness.

A new block, from a pile to his left, was tight in his palm as he tried again. His tacks were all made by hand in his free time. And free time he had as Megumi stayed in her room sullenly.

A sob. Ah, so she was crying again.

Beshimi had no idea how close she became to the doctor, but apparently it was closer than he first presumed. Of course, with Hannya's unmatchable skill in acquiring information, Beshimi already knew all about Megumi and her loss. Her family, most likely dead now, and now a friend is dead as well. It was barely a wonder why she would want to do nothing with her life at this point, except weep.

The kunai slipped but he lifted his wrist before it marred the wood. He stared evenly at the frustrating weapon gripped tightly in his hand.

When it came to ninjutsu, he was a failure. Skill with a kunai? Lacking, if at all. Hand to hand combat techniques? The basics at most. But the one thing he could handle about being a low ranking Oniwabanshu ninja was being quick on his feet and the tacks he mastered. No one managed to best him at it. But then again, not many cared to try anyways. None the less, Lord Aoshi found him useful enough to keep him around.

Beshimi prided himself in that fact. Serving Lord Aoshi had been the one thing in his life worth pursuing. And it was all he needed to continue living, unlike Megumi Takani who looked closer and closer to suicide each passing day.

As it so happened, nowadays, Beshimi rarely left his quiet little spot in watching her, only moving himself when one of the others arrived to take his place. As far as he and the others had seen, she hadn't eaten, bathed, or drank anything since Kanryu killed the doctor. It was almost as if life held no more purpose for her and she simply gave up trying.

Something that would never happen to him as long as Okashira-sama lived.

Beshimi stopped carving as the hiccuping suddenly became louder, and even to him, more pathetic. She shuddered, trying to force herself to stop, but couldn't manage it. It probably would be wrong to continue staring at her when she was so oblivious that anyone was watching her at all in her weakened state. Beshimi's thin black eyes fell down to his hands to avoid the crying woman below.

Little nicks and scars were all over his hands from when he slipped against the wood with the shaping. He was a fumbler when it came to kunai and he could never skillfully cut anything, even wood, with the weapon to save his life. But still, he managed to make his tacks which he could skillfully use for anything one could possibly do with them, just as long as he could make them.

Switching hands, the block now in his dominant gloved palm, he used the kunai to start shaping the base of the tack. He sniffed in sharply as the tip skimmed his calloused thumb, but kept on going as no blood trickled out onto his work.

He looked up. Again, no change.

It was becoming more blindingly obvious as the days drew on that she was intent on not making any new drugs for a man she now resented more than ever.

Beshimi slowed down in his work after a while, the shape almost definitely made now, and stared at the long black hair that fell down her back. He had been staring at it of and on all morning, and she hadn't moved or seemed to even want to make a move. It was starting to get on his nerves along with the cramps in his fingers from all the tacks he made in waiting for her to move. To stretch. To maybe stand for a bit. To do _anything!_

She could at least take a bath or something, he thought, surely she must stink, even for a woman. In fact, it had to be true, since she hadn't done so much as put a damp cloth to her face in nearly a week! If she was going to be depressed she could at least do it in the nude, while sitting in steamy water, so it would keep him entertained. Hell, it might even help her along in getting over it.

But, then again, she did have this annoying way of never doing anything that people expected or wanted her to do. It appeared that even _subconsciously_ it was so.

She was always like that. Beshimi could remember the first time they met.

Not at all a nice memory, anyways he had too few of those to begin with, and Megumi Takani would not, under any circumstance, be classified as a 'nice' anything! She had an attitude that matched even Hannya's. Not to mention an ego that seemingly surpassed Hyottoko's, a hard thing to do for sure. She even flaunted a pride that made Shikijou note it, though he was usually oblivious with such things as he had an impressive one himself.

Megumi Takani even hid the fact, though only slightly, that Lord Aoshi didn't seem fearsome and scare her. It was definitely the first in many years that they weren't completely stared at in awe or fear by someone, especially upon their initial meeting.

Their demonic faces didn't even make the woman so much as bat an eyelash. That was something else, and for a moment, oh, for a foolish moment, Beshimi was actually _impressed _with the lady.

Beshimi was so impressed, in fact, that he made the mistake in trying to be polite and befriend the pretty creature. He was shot down with that heartless voice of hers so quick that it was near painless. The key word being near. He stuttered, for a moment dumbfounded, as she flipped her silky strands over her shoulder, huffed her ruby painted lips, and gave him the cold shoulder. Then it clicked, and his long mouth dropped open. She even mentioned how short and ugly he was before fully leaving to go back to the room that she and the doctor worked in.

Hyottoko and good-natured Shikijou laughed as he felt every nerve in his head pop and his shoulders shook.

What an annoying woman! But still, even Beshimi could see she wasn't worthless. Unlike him, she had many talents, and her food did taste good when she was feeling generous and decided to make dinner for the doctor who would gladly share it with the Oniwaban group. She had a pretty face and a very graceful way about her movements, but she was still frustrating, irritating, infuriating-!

Past his fuming, he did feel a sudden (and strange) twinge of pity. They all probably did when watching her present pastimes of weeping or silently praying for an end to her torment. But, he could safely say his pity was stranger, more odd, than the rest of the group. And it was only because of how different he was from them.

He was no Shikijou, who had a big heart for everyone. Nor was he like Hyottoko, who actually felt sorry for everyone who suffered because not long ago he suffered as well. Hannya also may have pitied the woman because he could relate to what it was like to be alone.

Beshimi wasn't like them though, he had a small constricted heart made for few. He was actually a bit jealous of Hyottoko for having a more helpful talent than his tacks, proving to even himself how selfish he was in wanting to be the 'best'. And Hannya was probably the closest, most devoted, and most useful person under Lord Aoshi, earning him the most envy from the diminutive ninja. Wherever 'pity' found room in all his negative emotions, Beshimi couldn't be sure, but it was there. Just a little of it.

Maybe he should go down and say something to the woman, something to make her feel better about the doctor's death. It would be nice, and very rare of course, since he barely went out of his way to be nice to anyone but Misao and that was a long time ago. But, it wasn't like he was incabale of doing such things. Awkward, perhaps, but it could still be done. Perhaps Takani would even change her mind about him being really 'ugly.' He still would be of course, he was well aware he was what one called a 'looker', or even remotely resembled it, but maybe Megumi would think little less about his appearances, in an indirect way.

He sighed, but he wasn't supposed to talk to her. Lord Aoshi forbid it.

Still though…the woman was still weeping for heaven's sake!

Inching closer, he moved the tile in the ceiling so he could fit his body through. He placed his palms on the edge and he lowered himself down without Takani noticing. An easy task even for him since she didn't have sharp senses and she was numbed by emotional pain.

He took steps closer to her and coughed.

Her head twirled around at hearing the sudden sound and she almost yelped. But nothing came out of her red lips, and her tear streaked face turned to that of an angry one very quickly.

"What are you doing in here? Don't you know you shouldn't enter a lady's room without her knowing? It's rude!" Megumi crossed her arms and stuck her chin high in the air, "You aren't welcome in here, get out!"

_I've been watching you for days now, sweetheart. _Having no idea why he'd think to call her that Beshimi blinked and simply answered, "My name is Beshimi, if you remember-."

"I don't care, leave!" Megumi turned back around to the window, her long hair flinging over her shoulder. She added in a harsh whisper, "Ugly little man!"

"I have a name, **sweetheart**," Deciding the term would bother her, he continued, "And I noticed the little cutie isn't feeling so well lately."

"I shouldn't!" Megumi huffed and continued to stare out into the courtyard, her eyes locked on the front gate, "I don't know if you noticed, but a good friend of mine was **murdered **in cold blood not so very long ago."

"Oh no, I noticed that," Beshimi spat back. Kanryu was a far, a _very _far, cry from anything honorable and actually got on Beshimi (and surely the rest of the oniwaban's) every nerve. But he followed Lord Aoshi, and not the pig, so he didn't bother Beshimi near as much as the man _could_. Okashira-sama made sure that Kanryu was aware of that little fact. Because of this, Beshimi had a bit of resentment tied with his words, which could've possibly been misinterpreted somehow.

Megumi grew quiet, glaring out the window, as Beshimi shifted on his feet rather uneasily.

"What is it you want?" Megumi finally spoke again, but it was into the glass, "I don't want you staring at me for too long, so out with it."

"Stop crying."

"What?" She turned and faced him with puffy lids, "How can you say that?"

Beshimi sniffed than scratched his bony cheek with a rough finger, "Look, you can mourn the dead all you want, but it won't change a thing for them. You have to do something useful with your life. If not for yourself, then for them. If you can't manage that then you should just kill yourself and join them."

"Don't you think I know that, stupid little man?" Megumi sniffed back her tears and fought more of them, "But what would you have me do? Killing myself won't help bring him back! And there are still things to live for!"

"I don't know," Beshimi bit his cheek, "But sitting by that damn window won't do a thing either, stupid fox!"

Now _that_ was a term that suited her well. She was cunning like one and tricky as well. Though she didn't seem like it now.

Megumi's eyes flared and she put a hand on her collar bone, "So, I should make those drugs for Kanryu? Is that it?" She was slowly returning to her defiant self.

"No…yes, actually, that would be smart," Beshimi tried to unclench his teeth but they wouldn't come loose, as usual, so he spoke through a gritted grimace, "It would be better than having Kanryu kill you wouldn't it? Don't you want to live, fox?"

"Of course I do! But, how can I with only this to live for!" She gestured vaguely to her surroundings before sadly putting her head into her arms. Her hair barely brushed the glass pane as she sobbed, "I don't want to make those awful things! It would only kill more people!"

"Then die, but those are you're only two options, woman." Beshimi frowned and looked up at the tile. He probably shouldn't use that route if she was looking at him. She would most definitely know that they were watching her that way.

"No, it's not." Megumi narrowed her eyes into the cloth of her yukata before whipping her head around to flash a glare at the ninja, declaring, "I will run away from Kanryu!"

"I'd like to see you try!" Beshimi turned his back to her and walked towards the door, "Sorry to break it too you, sweetie, you're not getting past us!"

"That's what you think!" Megumi screeched before he slammed the door.

"Stupid woman!"

"Stupid dwarf!"

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><p><strong>End chapter one…..<strong>

**Next Chapter/ Beshimi has tempted her to escape, though claiming that his comrades can stop her. What will she do for her freedom? And will talking to her bite him in the ass later?**

**_I will upload more chappie's but only if I get a review, or maybe if I wait too long...either way! I have the whole thing written already.  
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**_Review?  
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	2. Chapter 2: A Lonely Life

_**A/N: Round 2! I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it :) For some odd reason, I really liked writing this story. I think it may have to do with the interesting characters...I think everyone should pick an odd character to write about at least once. It was a good learning experience, a challenge, and fun ^^.**_

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><p><strong>In this chapter: Beshimi was always a screw-up. So maybe he shouldn't be surprised that he would get caught spying eventually.<strong>

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><p>Chapter 2: "A Lonely Life"<p>

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><p>Megumi Takani never cried again, though she did drag her feet a bit and look depressed as ever. But even that didn't last long as she set herself to work on the Spider Opium and Kanryu, pleased, left her alone to make the packets of death.<p>

Again, it was his turn to watch her.

She ground the poppy seeds with a pestle in a ceramic bowl until it was a powder. Her pale hands then expertly mixed the dust with some other potions and secret concoctions she had made with mysterious un-labeled herbs and chemicals she had on a separate table. The drug was then shifted onto three pieces of paper in equal amounts and the said paper was then folded into three triangular packets. The powder was sealed within and she brushed the triangles into a basket that was already filled with identical brothers made earlier in the morning. Once the packets were settled in the basket, she went back to the poppy seeds in the bowl.

The process was repetitive, her hands moving mechanically and without thought. Like making the tacks that was giving Beshimi a slight headache today.

For some reason beyond him, the defects were seemingly doubling and the kunai was slipping more and more often than his usual blundering handiness most of the time managed. Only three useable tacks were created out of the many attempts, and he could feel his hand throb lightly from holding the kunai so long and so tightly in his aggravated palm.

Megumi wiped at her forehead and her pretty little lips frowned deeply. Her eyes were softened with a kind of shallow yearning, possibly for a nice break.

Pah! He mentally spat, at least she had more done than him! Beshimi also wiped at the beads of sweat on his forehead, collected in a higher quantity than on her pale brow, and his thin lips curled downward.

They really were complete opposites, in personality, but at least meticulous work was something they had in common.

It was a lonely life in the Kanryu mansion. Each Oniwaban had their own jobs that they must attend to morning, noon, and night. Beshimi barely saw his comrades anymore as they each were either on missions that the leeching pig requested Lord Aoshi to send them on, or they were patrolling the grounds in different areas.

Beshimi hated that he never saw his friends, the only ones he had after the war ended, and he resented the fact that he barely ever saw Leader in person anymore. He only saw Shikijou if he left the grounds, for the scarred man never left his post by the gate very often, and Hyottoko was only seen in person when the time for sleep came, as they shared the same room. Well, that, and when he was lucky enough to run into him out in the courtyard by happen-chance if the fireman decided to burn some fake-bodied dummies up.

Indeed, Beshimi hated it all. Especially always, always, seeing Hannya the most as he switched guard duties to watch the annoying woman. Though it was a comforting reminder that he still had comrades, Hannya was _not _the most comforting face to be found in the oniwaban. He was a stiff, disagreeable person with an attitude that didn't invite many for friendship. It would be truthful speaking if Beshimi said that Hannya found him a screw-up and his high-pitched raspy voice irritating, and Beshimi found him slightly arrogant, and judgmental . But they learned to deal with each other, sharing a loyalty to their Leader that was not to be questioned, and somehow built an odd sort of friendship from that. Though, it could hardly be called a 'friendship' now that their relationship only consisted of silently changing positions for guard duty.

Beshimi was utterly alone in a mind-numbing world of boredom. After all, it was never very exciting to watch a woman go through her daily life, same as always, day after day.

For Megumi Takani, it was also a lonely life because her only friend was recently murdered. If that wasn't enough, Kanryu never sent for anyone to help her in making the opium that she created again. So, she worked alone and never had anyone to talk to or even stare at in contempt unless she wanted to look at the pig that chained her there. She never cared much for friendship, but as a human being she still wanted at least a companion.

Beshimi stretched his short arms over his chest and stifled a yawn and a groan as the knots in his arm loosened slightly. He let his arm flop down and it brushed against the line of good tacks at his feet. Like dominoes, they bumped into each other until the last rolled down through the crack between the mislaid tile and ceiling. He swiped at it but it was too late as it dropped onto Takani's desk with a loud *_clack*_.

She blinked at it, the pestle gripped in her hand as the tack rolled in a circle from its round cone shape. Her eyes followed the tack's path up to the ceiling, where she couldn't see the tile crack exactly, but knew it was there now.

"I know it is you!" Megumi called up, agitated, "I know only one little imp that would use such a weapon!"

"Oh?" Beshimi moved the tile away more to show his face, after silently cursing about being caught of course. Another one of his ninja failures, the art of shrouding oneself with the shadows, eluded him today. Most times he could manage a mediocre technique in it, but today it seemed even simple tasks escaped his grasp.

"If you wanted to peep in on me," Megumi crossed her arms, the cloth tied over her hair sliding back against her sweaty forehead as she looked up into the ceiling, "I'd imagine it would be while I'm changing or in the bath."

_Peeping, is it? Is that what she thinks I'm doing? _

"Oh no, cutie," Beshimi smiled tightly, the tile pushed nearly out of the way now to reveal his full face staring down at her, "I wasn't peeping."

"So what are you doing in the ceiling?" Takani exhaled at the unplanned rest she was giving her hands from the pestle, setting the object down along side the tack, "Are you trying to say you weren't up there long?"

"Oh no, I was here all morning-" Beshimi swiftly dodged the ceramic bowl that flew past his head and shattered against the rafters, depositing half ground powder and shards everywhere, "Oi! Fox I'd be careful with that! It's the only thing keeping you in Kanryu's good graces!"

"Who said I wanted to be?" Megumi turned her head to the side, her eyes closing, "I don't care about him, and I don't care about you! You best go away before I tell the oaf you were spying on his little golden goose."

"Not a goose, more of a fox," Beshimi mumbled harshly under his breath and suddenly had the image of a fox sneaking into a bird house and killing a goose by clamping it's long snout over the bird's neck before violently shaking its head and sending blood flecks onto the walls. A vivid and gory thought, made humorous by the fact that his imaginings came complete with a goose that had a feather pattern on its head resembling Kanryu's ridiculous hairstyle.

He grinned wide, almost smug, and retorted, "And anyways, I know you wouldn't waste you're time in seeing Kanryu's face a second longer than you have to, cutie."

"Hmph!" Megumi flicked her wrist, before, a scowl still on her face, she looked back up from the corner of her eye, "Come down you little creep, you're making me uncomfortable sitting up in the rafters and staring down at me like a demon."

"Oh, but a demon is what I do best," Beshimi leaned back and let the shadows partially cover his face, "It's what all members of the Oniwaban group do best."

"Are you coming down or not?"

"Is this a proposition, fox?" Beshimi chuckled in his throat at the horrified face she made in return.

"Of course it isn't!" Takani crossed her arms tight under her firm breasts and opened her mouth wide, "I'm telling you, either come down and act like a normal human being or be gone and stop peeping on me!"

"Fine, " He spat and hissed the rest of his words as he shuffled toward the edge of the tile, "But know thisss, I'm not staying long."

"Do you do that often?" Megumi sniffed and watched as he inched closer to the side of the tile, "Well?"

Beshimi's brief silence was broken by an unsure, "Peep on you?"

Megumi moved her arms to her hips,"I meant hiss like some kind of animal, but that would be something I'd like to know if you don't mind."

"Oh no, consider this the first," Beshimi lied and grabbed the square edges, instantly retracting his hands away in the process, "Ssk!"

Takani moved a little bit closer to the place directly underneath the opening in the ceiling, sounding a bit annoyed as she sighed,"What now?"

Blood dripped from the kunai's point as it balanced on the edge of the ceiling tile. In the shadows, he hadn't seen the black metal, as was the color choice of his personal kunai, against the edge of the opening. He had accidentally stabbed his own palm with the damned tip! Just how clumsy was he going to act in one day, he thought ruefully.

"Damn," The shadows still obstructed his view of the wound but he felt his gloveless palm become wet, "I stabbed myself."

Megumi's eyes widened a bit, "You did what?"

"My hand," Beshimi lifted the kunai off of the boards and shoved it back into its holster inside his shirt, as he should have done earlier if he had any sense, "I stabbed my hand."

Takani shook her head, almost exasperated, "Well, I'm a doctor you know. Maybe I'll look at it."

"Want a break that badly?" Beshimi closed his fist and dropped through the ceiling. Landing on the floor with a dull thud, and, remaining crouched on the floor, he looked up, "Well, sweetheart?"

"Stop calling me that you disgusting little bug of a man," Megumi pulled at the cloth around her hair and freed it, before she turned around, "Well, I'll get bandages. I'm sure the good doctor left some under-" Her voice trailed off as she began to rummage through the doctor's personal effects he left in his death.

Beshimi uncurled his fist and stared at his dark toned hand. Blood pooled into the middle of his palm, collecting in it, while some trickled down his wrist in one thick trail. Another separate branch flowed down between his thumb and forefinger and dripped onto the floor with a light _plip_ sound as each heavy drop struck the floor tiles between his feet.

He bent his shoulders and leaned down to lap at the cut with his tongue.

"What are you doing?!" Megumi's voice shrilled, horrified and disgusted all at once, before demanding, "Stop that at once!"

He slanted a brow and opened one huge eye bigger than the other, his tongue hanging out his mouth still, hovering over his wound. "Hnn?" He croaked.

"Do you want it to become infected!?" Megumi asked angrily as she finally yanked a dusty old medicine box free the shelf and shook her head, "Is that what you really want, toad?"

"Ah, a toad now?" Beshimi licked the side of his mouth and the blot of blood that was marking it disappeared into his lips, "Well, sorry, beautiful, but I've taken care of myself long enough to know that nothing would come out of my licking my wounds."

"Like an animal?" Megumi swiped at the top of the medicine box with her head cloth, "I should think you'd at least be smarter than that!"

"That dusty old box is what would infect me!" Beshimi, after taking one appraising look at the old kit, closed his hand and pulled it to the side of his head defiantly as Megumi drew closer to him with the medical box in her hands, "Besides, the Oniwabanshu have the best medicine in the world! I don't need your pathetic treatment!"

"Pathetic?! Now you insult me!" Megumi reached out and grabbed a firm hold of his wrist, "Let me see it and we'll see if my medical knowledge is pathetic!"

"I don't want treatment so you don't have to treat me!" Beshimi yanked against the hold and wrenched his wrist free. He turned on his haunches and positioned his back towards her, all the while leaning his head down to lick at the stinging line of red again while his thin pupils watched her from over his shoulder.

"Didn't anyone tell you that it would get infected if you do that?" Megumi frowned and crawled on her knees to face the short ugly little man again, "Well?"

"Why, yes, _you _did not too long ago," Beshimi replied in his raspy voice, and then growled, "Remember sweetheart?"

"I mean someone else!" Megumi shouted, "Someone with sense who you'd listen too!"

"No, no one ever has! Not even Leader has bothered me about it!" Beshimi narrowed his eyes. To him, that showed something, but to Megumi, she was surprised that no one ever stopped the idiot from doing more harm than good when it came to his pains.

"Never bad has ever come from it," He said forcefully before bringing his hand up to his mouth to suck on his palm. A little red slipped from the corner of his sharp thin lips as he spoke around the wound, "An' Nofing bad eva hap'n'd, fvoman."

"That must taste terrible," Takani try to reason and made another attempt to grab his wrist again. He lidded his eyes and allowed her to pull it down to the space between his bent knees, "Let me help it and you won't have to drink so much blood. That would make you're stomach sick if nothing else."

"Fine," Beshimi opened up his fist and looked at the red smear against his dark palm. The creases in his calloused hands had a dark line running in them and the swipe of life essence on his tanned fingers almost looked a rusty brown. The cut stretched along his hand and down towards his wrist when the knife slid against his skin, and it still was letting blood trail out of it excessively. No surprise, kunai were deadly sharp since slicing skin with ease is what that tool was made to do.

"Hmm," Megumi blinked and reached into the box for a cloth pad. "King of Fools. That is what you are, you know. You may be the stupidest man I have ever met."

"So far, sweetie." He smiled, for some reason it brought him a little bit of joy to know that he at least had one title of sorts that dubbed him the best of something.

It was a habit actually. He annoyed and pestered and was remembered as such (more or less) by everyone. But at least he wasn't forgotten. No, the chance of being the 'best' had been lost during the war. The chance of being dubbed the best fighters in all Japan had fled from the Oniwabanshu, from him, but they would be remembered one day, the title rightfully belonging to him and his comrades. But only until the chance came to them. For now, it was dealing with Kanryu that would dub them at least the most patient of men.

Megumi soaked the cloth with a foul smelling liquid, and frowned, possibly from being called 'sweetie' and other terms of endearment that made her spine tingle in a terrible shiver when the ugly thing in front of her rasped them. She allowed her eyes to scan his narrow face once before stating, "It may hurt."

Beshimi scrunched his long nose to the side as a cool liquid she had poured onto his palm sunk into his wound. He sniffed, the smell of alcohol meeting his nostrils,"I don't think I'm a fool by the way. I just take care of myself, and there's nothing wrong with that."

"It's unsanitary if anything!" Megumi got defensive again and pushed the cloth hard against the cut, allowing the medicine to sink into the blood in the most painful way possible. Her professional doctor side cringed at the thought this man treated all wounds with such dis-care, but the Megumi Takani in her wanted to make the wound sting before healing it, "And you're a fool to think that licking it like a hurt animal helps heal a wound at all!"

"It never failed me," Beshimi felt the first squeeze of the wrap around his hand as Megumi tugged the linen hard. "I never had an infection or pain. But your so called 'healing' is giving me more pain than any little cut ever would, fox!"

"It was a deep cut," Megumi pulled the end of the gauze tighter and smiled as the unattractive man before her flinched, "It would have gotten infected if you didn't treat it. Which I doubt you would have done on your own."

"I'm clumsy," Beshimi yanked his hand away from her as she finished a tight knot, "I'm used to it. I don't fret over superficial wounds like cuts. If I did that I would be busy mending myself every day. Besides…"

Megumi blinked and brought her arms back to her sides tightly.

"I hate doctors."

"Now why would you say that?" Megumi huffed and re crossed her arms, "You ugly little man, that isn't much of a thank you!"

"I didn't want to thank you," Beshimi shot back and then he turned his head to the side, "I don't like doctors because they are always telling you what to do. I can take care of myself just fine and these doctors always tell me I do things wrong! Well, I have enough of that!"

"Oh?" Megumi smirked and leaned back slightly, "Always a mess-up?"

"Shut it, vixen!" He felt a vein throb in his temple, his hands balling into tight fists. She smirk, having gotten under his skin, and his face suddenly cooled as he smirked in return. Then it was the doctor's turn to feel a vein pop in her head as he bowed and changed his tone to mock-politeness suddenly, "_Arigato gozaimasu, Takani-sensei._ Your care was something I didn't need but you wasted you're time anyway."

"So, you think you're clever?" Megumi frowned more deeply and stuck her chin higher in the air, "Or is it that you think you're funny?"

"I have no doubt I'm clever, Megumi Takani," He spat out her name and chuckled, "But if you think this is funny than you have missed the joke entirely. Sweet-."

"Call me that again and I will be sure to-."

"Aa, you'll **plan** something. But-" Beshimi stood up, "You'll never find me if you looked. Ssso, you can't do a **thing** to me."

"You think so?" Megumi jutted out her red bottom lip, "Well, I won't _need _to teach you a lesson or slap your face until my hand is sore! I'll find a way to get away from here, and I won't have to deal with any of you ever again!"

"Go and try woman, but you'll never get past us," Beshimi taunted her by putting his thin muscled fingers of his wrapped hand by his narrow head and wiggled them, "You could try and try, but a simple vixen will never get past the Oniwabanshu!"

"We'll see who is the simple one!" Megumi also stood up and towered over the man who turned back to the opening, "Try and stop me, Oniwaban!"

"Heh," Beshimi leaped into the darkness and disappeared from the doctor's sight. Moments later the scrapping of the tile could be heard as it was put back in place, then silence again.

Yes, it was lonely life living in the Kanryu mansion. But after finally seeing a human being again they could talk to, lonely didn't seem all that bad, and freedom never seemed more wonderful to Megumi.

* * *

><p><strong>End Chapter two...<strong>

**Next Chapter/Megumi invites the Oniwaban over for dinner. And Beshimi just can't accept that she's not up to something devious!  
><strong>


	3. Chapter 3: Poison Seeps in Slowly

**In this chapter: Megumi does something unexpected and of course Beshimi is suspicious.**

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><p>Chapter 3: "Poison Seeps in Slowly"<p>

* * *

><p>The invitation was unexpected, and obviously suspicious. And of course, Lord Aoshi Shinomori was not one to miss that fact.<p>

"Odd," Speaking his mind, the Okashira said it aloud when the doctor asked politely if they, the Oniwaban group, would be interested in having dinner with her.

"I don't mean anything by it," Megumi quickly replied and rolled her head back inconspicuously, "It was just something the good late doctor offered many times to you and your Oniwaban, and I feel that I somehow must…keep a little bit of him alive in this way."

"Aa," Aoshi seemed to accept this, but then lowered his head and met her eyes by glaring at her straight in the face, "If it is anything else, Takani-san, I will make sure you will pay for it however way I can."

"Suspicious are we, Shinomori Aoshi?" Megumi spoke sharply and rolled her eyes, "You have nothing to be suspicious of! What could I possibly do to you or your men? Hmph! I couldn't do a thing."

Aoshi gave a look that was unreadable, but he finally nodded, agreeing with her words,"The Oniwaban would be honored to accept your meal."

Megumi smiled lightly, her red lips curling at the sides in a pleased look, "Seven, then."

After the woman left, Hannya, who had been causally leaning into the wall with his stripped arms folded, spoke up in his rough and very deep voice, "Leader, the woman is obviously a little too pleased. As I understood, the doctor was her friend and it has only been a short time since the man's death. If she is pla-."

"Hannya," Aoshi's voice cut the spy short, "Perhaps, it is as she said. She wanted to do something for the doctor." He shifted his weight and turned his himself to look at the Oniwaban master of espionage, "And also as she said, she couldn't hope to catch us off guard."

"Perhaps not us," Hannya nodded in agreement, "But what of Beshimi and Hyottoko? If there's poison in the food, they would fall prey to it before they would even suspect anything."

"I heard that!" Beshimi stalked closer to the two men, however focusing his thin pupils at the demon masked one, "I'm not that useless! Besides, I'm the master of poison along with tacks! That stupid fox couldn't trick me so easily."

Aoshi's stony mask revealed nothing as he exchanged glances with the two demons, who were seething and glaring at each other when not glancing back at him. After some length, he turned fully and started to walk down the hallway as he was before Megumi approached him, his only parting words being, "Just see to it that you are right, Beshimi."

"I will take that to the grave, Leader," Beshimi bowed respectfully, his arm over his chest, "I won't be so foolish as to cause problems for you, Okashira. I will never let the woman get the better of me. This I promise to you."

"Very well," Aoshi didn't even stop, continuing to take his carefully laid steps away from his comrades, "Go tell Shikijou and Hyottoko then."

Beshimi rose and quickly darted off, there on the floor one moment and turning the corner down the long hall the next.

* * *

><p>"Oh really hmm?" Hyottoko scratched the place where his neck and collar bone met, "Dinner with Takani-san again sounds good to me. Why are you making it sound so bad, shorty?"<p>

"Just watch out," Beshimi warned and looked away from his larger friend from where he crouched on the ground, "I don't want to be the one to say 'I told you' when you have been poisoned and I'm shuffling for an antidote, Fatty."

"Same could be said to you," Hyottoko looked around Kanryu's yard and glared at the gunmen and other yakuza guards that Kanryu hired. They flinched and hurried along, not at all trying to make contact with the giant in any form. "Peh!" Hyottoko scoffed, "I hate how they look at us."

"It doesn't matter. _They _don't matter." Beshimi narrowed his eyes at lingering patrols and they seemed slightly put off by his glare, looking at him like one would do a cat in an alley with it's sharp teeth showing, "They only know that we don't work for that damned Kanryu like they do. They don't see us in the same league as them, but in truth they're not in with us."

"I know that," Hyottoko shifted his massive weight and the gravel from the path crunched under his feet, "Why are you so stiff, Beshimi?"

"Me? Stiff?" Beshimi threw his head back on his neck, straightening it and holding it erect. He closed one eye down sharply and asked, "What would I have to be stiff about?"

"Takani-san."

"What?!" Beshimi bit into the word and let out a low hiss, "That stupid fox has nothing to do with my mood!"

"You never liked her," Hyottoko shrugged his thick shoulders, "I never had a problem with her. She does what she's supposed to."

"Ah, but you forget how annoying she is!" Beshimi pointed a sinewy finger at Hyottoko's large gut, "You miss that part, don't you?"

Hyottoko derided, "You're the annoying one."

"Say what you like!" The smaller man's tight jawed mouth angled down sharply, "I won't let that vixen bother me until she finally bests me!"

"It's not that hard." Hyottoko snorted loudly, "Only a matter of time before the woman-."

"Err! Shut it, Fatso!"

"_Maa, Maa," _Shikijou proudly strutted toward them from the front gate, his straw sandals grinding into the little rough stones below his feet, "Don't fight again guys."

"Shikijou," Hyottoko acknowledged him with a sluggish nod, "Megumi Takani-san invited us to eat with her again."

"Heh?" Shikijou still had his slightly cocky trademark smirk plastered on his scarred face but his golden brown eyes widened a bit, "She still feel like doing that after Kanryu mur-" He looked at the yakuza standing too close to them, watching (more like spying) and slowly changed his words a bit, "Her doctor friend died, right?"

"Seems so," Hyottoko patted his round belly, a great smile spreading over his mostly toothless mouth, "Ah, I can't wait though. Megumi Takani knows how to cook a meal. What was it she made last time? I forget; it was a while ago."

Shikijou rubbed his chin and grinned wider, "I remember, she made _ohagi_ for a snack. That seems to be something she makes quite a lot, doesn't it?"

"I like it." Hyottoko looked down at Beshimi from the corner of his small eye, "Eh? What do you say, Short-stuff?"

"Should I have an opinion?" Beshimi scratched the end of his long nose, admitting only in his head, _It was good __**ohagi**__ though…_

"Ahhh!" Shikijou shook his head, making the lion-like mane of his slightly reposition across his shoulders and back, before leaning down and patting the stubby man on the head. Beshimi's messy hair became crushed under the heavily muscled hand, "Don't be like that! Even you haveta admit it, Takani makes good food!" Beshimi twitched, and Shikijou ground his rough palm into the goblin's head, "What do you got against Megumi Takani now, anyways?"

Hyottoko made a snorting sound, unlike a large animal (a suppressed laugh) before booming out a little too loudly, "Maybe he has a crush on her!"

"Aw, how nice," Shikijou rustled the dark red-brown strands of hair and his voice took on a condescending mocking sort of tone, "Maybe you could be Beshimi Takani, you nameless thing you!"

"Aw~!" Hyottoko joined in and Shikijou and he exchanged dopey, shiny-eyed looks. They were so good at looking fuzzy-feeling that Beshimi could swear, more to his annoyance, that they had cute light blush gracing their ugly mugs.

"Shut up!" Beshimi jumped back from the scarred hand and crossed his arms, "Don't even joke about it! I would rather die a very cruel and slow death before that would happen!"

"Don't be too defensive," Shikijou, back to normal, put his thick hands on his chiseled hips, "Or I might think I'm right."

"Really, as well as you know me-" Beshimi started but Shikijou quickly brushed the air with his left hand.

"I was joking, calm down."

"So shorty, when's dinner?" Hyottoko gave his stomach another pat, already thinking about what Megumi might make.

"Seven." Beshimi slowly blinked before turning and disappearing as he dashed away.

* * *

><p>Megumi lifted her knife as she heard the door to her personal area swing open.<p>

"It's me," Beshimi frowned at her as she leaned back through the kitchen doorway to see who entered and closed the door behind him with a particularly mean kick of his foot.

Megumi narrowed her eyes a bit at the sight of him and turned back to the kitchen fire pit she was kneeling beside, "What is it you want?"

"I'm making sure to see that you don't poison our food." Beshimi took off his shoes and stepped into Megumi's 'home'.

The room was slightly different than the rest of Kanryu's mansion. In fact, it didn't even look like it belonged with the rest of the place since it had a slight traditional Japanese flavor to the kitchen and the floor, upon Megumi's request, was covered with _tatami_ mats. The walls, doors and windows, however, had the European style like the rest of the mansion. Beshimi had been in there before, for dinner and not spying from the ceiling, and Megumi insisted that they take off their shoes like in average Japanese homes.

"I won't poison you're food!" Megumi chopped vegetables more tensely, "Who do you think would have to tend to you if you were? I'm the only doctor here, so that would be me!"

"I already told you, fox, I can take care of myself." Beshimi shoved his hands into his opposite sleeves and dropped to the floor in the 'dining room', crossing his legs as he did, "I don't need your treatment even if I was poisoned and dying!"

"Really?" Megumi went back to the job of preparing the meal after giving him a long sideways glance, "And am I to think you're an expert?"

"As a matter of fact I am, sweetheart," Beshimi smiled tightly, "More than you, I would think."

"Well," Megumi stirred whatever was simmering over the fire, and Beshimi had to admit smelled delicious, and smiled herself, "I was trained rather well. Treating poisons is no large task for me."

"Oh, like making opium?" Beshimi blurted then sucked in a sharp bite of air afterward.

Megumi turned, her eyes flaring, "Who said I did that because I want to?"

He frowned, not at her but himself, and removed his arms from his sleeves, mumbling, "No one."

Megumi opened her pretty little mouth to say more but only huffed loudly and twirled back to the fire angrily.

Silently cursing, Beshimi dropped onto his side against the floor and propped his head up with his dominant arm, still staring into the kitchen. He didn't care if he looked rude, especially since he was in _this_ woman's domain, so he bent one knee while stretching out his other leg lazily.

The silence was awkward and the only sounds were the food cooking and Beshimi's teeth creaking as he clenched his jaw too tight. Whatever possessed him to say anything about opium, something he already knew she didn't enjoy making or even talking about, was gnawing at his brain to tell him to apologize to the woman he was learning to hate. But why apologize!? Yes, he was wrong, but still...it was _that _woman he said it to. It was...excusable to be mean to such a nasty disagreeable person...right?! However, unlike most men, he didn't have a very large enough pride to fight himself for very long.

"_Gomen nasai,_" Beshimi squinted his eyes when Takani looked over her shoulder at him oddly, "What?"

"I didn't expect you to use such polite speech," Megumi turned back to what she was doing, "Especially with how rude you usually are."

"I'm polite when I need to be," Beshimi watched her hands carefully as she spiced the meal, "And not when I don't feel like it."

Another bout of silence passed as Beshimi simply sat, occasionally picking his index fingernail with his thumb, and Megumi continued to work diligently, the clock ticking away fifteen minutes.

Megumi moved the plates around and made a pinched face at the man laying down in the next room."I'm almost done so you don't have to keep watching me."

"Hnn," Was all Beshimi had to say as he heaved himself back up to a sitting position and looked over to the clock. Reading that it was six forty he sighed. "Another twenty minutes and the Okashira and the others will be here."

"That's alright with me," Megumi blinked and rose from her spot, "I prefer having a bit of time before I expect anyone."

Beshimi's pupils lazily moved around between his eyelids as he watched her walk toward the dining room, pushing the doors out of her way with her foot and make several trips between the two rooms until the table was rightfully set.

The clock continued to tick by, almost painfully slowly, and Megumi sat with her hands in her lap on one of the square pillows that lined the low sitting table. Beshimi took a place farthest from her and drummed his fingers on the table top, his stomach accidentally growling a bit too loud after a while.

Takani smiled, amused, "Hungry?"

"I'd rather starve then eat your food now." Beshimi stuffed his arms back into his sleeves, "I'm only here because Okashira said that-."

Flicking her wrist quickly and promptly making a forceful 'hmph!' sound in the back of her thin throat, Megumi cut him off insulted "Fine, I should've expected as much from you, ugly little imp."

Beshimi felt his face grow a bit hotter, "Eh? That right?"

"_Konbawa," _Hyottoko announced his entrance and took a large step into the room, leaving his shoes at the door. Shikijou followed, and Hannya and Aoshi right after.

"Welcome," Megumi smiled as Aoshi and the others curiously looked at Beshimi, who gave a passing snort and puffed out his shallow cheeks, his arms still deep in his opposite sleeves.

Aoshi blinked, giving off no sign of the slight entertainment he received from seeing the undersized ninja trying to hide the pink in his deeply tanned face that the others silently forced upon him in their 'knowing' stares.

"Mmm!" Hyottoko, now done in his fun at Beshimi's expense, sniffed at the covered food. "What is it?"

"Rice, fish filet and pickles," Megumi removed the covers on each of the platters, "Nothing special I'm afraid."

"The fish smells wonderful none-the-less," Shikijou always managed to be more polite to woman and children, "Ah, not poisoned, I'm guessing, Beshimi?"

"Hm," Beshimi sniffed and narrowed his eyes, the tinge of pink still on his face. He picked up the chopsticks off of the rest and took a bite of the fluffy white rice.

Hyottoko immediately dug in too, not quite as polite as he should have been, but he was pretty comfortable in the room since they had eaten there many times before when the good old doctor was alive.

The old doctor was a good tempered man, with a hearty laugh, and always had something to say about anything. If one were to say 'bird' than he have a funny anecdote to go along with it. He laughed many times at the Oniwaban's many oddities and apologized for laughing at them at all every time. It was a pity such a man was murdered, but the ninjas dismissed it. It was easier to cold-heartedly think life was life and perhaps it was his fault for being slightly greedy at first and getting mixed up with such a man as Kanryu.

Though, not one Oni-ninja could say that aloud, or even make themselves fully believe that. The man was murdered, after all, for refusing to make a drug that could kill at twice the time it took.

"Hmm?" Beshimi blinked as Hyottoko nudged him with his gigantic elbow, knocking him slightly off balance before regaining it.

"Okashira-sama asked you something." Hyottoko motioned with his small round pupils to Aoshi very serious-faced. Had he missed something? Probably, since when he zoned out Shikijou and Hyottoko were merrily trying to make Megumi laugh and were failing incredibly. Now they all stared at him.

"Aa, Okashira?" Beshimi dutifully perked up at the leader sitting next to Megumi.

"I said," Aoshi gave a slight nod, "For someone who feared of being poisoned, you ate quickly."

"Aeh?" His skinny neck turned from side to side to see the half-eaten plates around him and his cat-slit eyes darted back to his clean platter. He frowned slightly and swallowed the embarrassing lump painfully down his straight neck to his flat chest, "Aa, I did, Leader. Henh, henh, I guess-," Beshimi put his hand behind his head awkwardly and met his skull with a humiliating loud slap, "I was more hungry than I realized!"

"Hmm," Hannya snorted despite himself and brought a a piece of flaky fish between his teeth, the mask pushed slightly to the side to allow his lipless mouth to bite and chew freely.

"What was so funny?" Beshimi clamped his fist over the chopsticks and brought his hand up to shoulder level as a vein popped in his forehead.

Hannya looked up, his eyes still masked by the demon, and chuckled, "Nothing, _fool_."

"Err! I'm not a fool," Beshimi brought his fist down upon his knee and hopped a little off his seat at realizing he stupidly jabbed his kneecap with the chopsticks, still in his hand. "Oaaow!"

"Heh," Hyottoko gave a gummy smile, "Good one, shrimp."

"My point proven," Hannya mumbled and snickered, "Fool."

Beshimi jumped to his undersized legs and pointed at the oni-masked ninja, "Nothing has been proven, you-!"

For the first time that night, Megumi Takani laughed, but of course not because the joke was friendly.

She never knew she would get such an enjoyment out of watching an idiot pile on pain for himself as he found time to irritate, or rather provoke, Hyottoko as well as Hannya. Hyottoko held him in a head lock, his legs wiggling like a bug and Hannya cracked his knuckles, almost happily. As a doctor, someone hurting themselves made her angry, but this? This was enjoyable enough. She finished her laugh and stole a glance to the always stoic Aoshi, who had a shine in his eyes but nothing more.

Maybe happiness was like poison for him. It seeped in slowly and someone can't tell its there before its too late.

Maybe happiness was a poison to her as well, she had to take it first before its effects could reach her body.

* * *

><p><strong>End chapter three...<strong>

**Next Chapter/ Megumi ponders of the strange things about Beshimi, hatching the beginning stages of her escape, while Beshimi loses himself in rarely recalled memories.  
><strong>

**A/N: _This chapter had almost nothing to do with the storyline. And yet...it was my favorite one somehow (maybe because I like food so much?) Also, I think I may have indirectly gotten my insipiration for Hannya and Beshimi's arguements from Naruto. Though really, I just can't see Hannya having enough paitence for a guy like Beshimi, I mean, would anyone (except Aoshi) have a completely harmonious relationship with that guy? No! Even I would get annoyed...and I like him!_**


	4. Chapter 4: A Little Demon Named Beshimi

_**A/N: Reviews? (And as a warning, this chapter be kinda long)**_

* * *

><p><strong>In this chapter: Beshimi is a bit of a mystery. Not like Aoshi or Hannya, but in his own twisted way…he was oddly not human it seemed.<strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: "A Little Demon Named Beshimi"<p>

* * *

><p>After the meal, and after embarrassing Beshimi as much as humanly possible, Megumi brought out a tray that the nin never noticed and let the others, excluding Hannya and Okashira who abstained from it, to dig into the sugary confection.<p>

Now, with a full belly and leftover heat in his face from the dinner, Beshimi laid with his arms bent behind his head and cradled his straight tall neck with his palms. He shifted his shoulders and brought the wrapped hand from underneath him and looked at it with squinted eyes, a twitch in his lower eyelid.

"Peh!" He brought his hand to him and bit into the cloth, shredding it with his teeth. After the linen gauze was either in scraps on his chest or in long stringy bits limply clinging to his wrist and palm, he spat out the material from his lips and smiled at his work.

He did get a good kick out of messing up things, maybe too good of a kick.

The fragments closest to the original wound, stained a rusty color, fluttered in the cool night wind that lightly brushed over him on the Kanryu mansion's roof.

The cut was gone, his skin smooth once again.

_What do you know?_ He thought bitterly, _The woman healed me faster than usual._ Beshimi couldn't help but admit the wounds he licked on his own took a while to heal while her treatment did quicken the process. He frowned at the fact that he allowed **that** woman to help him at all.

"Mmf!" He bit into the last pieces on his wrist and yanked it away from him, letting it fly away in the wind. "Damnit, I don't need help!"

* * *

><p>Again, the pestle was in her hand, mechanically crushing the pods in her new bowl. Megumi stopped working and sadly looked down at the half-ground powder that rested at the bottom of the ceramic bowl. Kanryu had provided her with a new one quickly after she made the excuse that she accidentally dropped it. Of course, she would make any pitiful excuse before actually telling <em>him<em> that she hurled at a paid Oniwaban's head.

Hannya stared down through the tiles, spying, watching her. She sighed and looked up absently, not seeing the slight misplacement of the tile that Hannya expertly 'guised with the normal dips in the ceiling.

_Is that freak up there watching me now? _Megumi blinked before looking back down at the bowl. What she wouldn't do for a break right now. Every packet she made was like a stab to her heart. Laughing at the idiot would at least make her feel 'distracted' from it all.

Sighing, Takani finally resigned her spell of depression and got back to work again, grinding the poppy seeds and mixing in the bits the doctor shared with her. She would _not _be the first to talk to the imp. Not this time, what with the way he talked to her with his last unannounced visit.

Her eyes were stinging while she made more and more packets that the good doctor died trying to avoid their evil creation. _Oh, when will this end?_

"Hrk!" She bit her red bottom lips and her black eyebrows furrowed. She needed to find her freedom and soon!

_"You can never get past us!" _The little goblin's shrill voice rang annoyingly in her ears. Surely by 'us' he met 'me'. She could never hope to slip out of the front gate like she longed planned. Shikijou must sleep eventually but even if he was when she tiptoed past, the man would hear her foot steps. He looked obviously brawny but he was sensitive with his senses, like any sensible warrior.

The one named Hannya was also an obstacle in her freedom. Always close to Aoshi Shinomori, who was more or less always with Kanryu or doing something for the creep, but also having the knack to appear in other places as well.

Hyottoko wandered the halls of the mansion and Beshimi…

Disappeared. Unlike Hannya who seemed to be everywhere at once, the goblin was no where. Not once had she seen him besides when he came to her first; Like when he would just stalk into the workroom when the doctor was alive, or when she and the good doctor took a break for a walk around the estate the stub of a man materialized by the doctor, and finally the one time he peeped on her (if that was the only time). The other Oniwaban, and even Aoshi, she could sometime happen to find in various places. But, never Beshimi.

The little imp seemed to come and go as he pleased and one day when the good doctor amusingly asked Shinomori where he went, Aoshi slightly shrugged and stony-faced as ever replied, "He is either on a mission for me or himself. If neither, then he is near by."

As much sense as that made, but apparently whenever Shinomori needed the ugly thing he would creep back around. Much like a stray cat.

Heh, a stray cat. He looked like it. More than a toad or an imp or goblin, like she had called him earlier, anyways.

_Sweetheart, cutie, sweetie, _all the annoying nicknames he threw at her. They made her brain cringe and her nerves quiver, but it wasn't worse than when he addressed her correctly. The way the freak said her real name was like he hated the taste of it. He would spit out _**Meg**__umi __**Ta**__kani_, with emphasis on the beginning letters. No, it was much better to stand the nicknames then when he said her actual name. At least, those stupid little names he didn't sound like he was sneezing.

Such an annoying little man was he. A part of her wondered what part of him was a man at all. He didn't seem like a normal man in any sense of the word. Of course, the others didn't seem normal either...Even Shinomori who _looked _normal was a bit off when compared to the average man. But at least the others were believable as to not have congealed in some dark pool in an alley somewhere and to actually have had lives elsewhere.

Unlike the others, the little creep Beshimi didn't seem to be useful to the Oniwabanshu at all. He supposedly flicked tacks, whatever worth that skill was, and maybe, if he wasn't lying, was an expert in poisons. He had one skill and one skill alone, apparently inadequately meeting the guidelines for other ninja arts, and he used that skill with subtle clumsiness. It also wasn't an impressive technique either like Hyottoko's, who Megumi saw with her own eyes, a fearsome fire-breather like the kanji in his name as Beshimi was so glad to point out.

The short man was undeniably weird, even to Megumi who wasn't fazed by many unusual things because she herself was a little off the grid for what was expected for most women. It wouldn't surprise her one bit if the man actually did crawl out of some back alley one day, grown and looking as he did now. He certainly hadn't changed since he got there with Shinomori so many years ago, but then again the others only subtly changed as well, so perhaps the man had as well along with them and she couldn't see it.

Beshimi, the only name she had for him besides the one's she used to mock him, was a mystery in a twisted sense. She couldn't see him as a child with parents, though logic would tell her that he must've had two people to make him, and she couldn't see him ever having any life beyond what he did at the mansion. He probably didn't. It was believable that he had no other goals but to serve 'Lord Aoshi' with the rest of them.

Most importantly, she couldn't see him thinking the way others did.

The cat-like, in-human eyes that Beshimi possessed, gleamed in the dark in a very evil way, and the way he would stare at you in the darkness of shadows made chills run down your arms. He was obviously not a direct threat, for all she knew, but he had a stare like he could see through people. If she had more time, and if she wasn't planning on leaving this hell hole soon, she might try and crack that insect-like shell the man had and find exactly what went on in that narrow head of his.

But she didn't have time for that. Freedom was so close anyways, all she needed to do was think carefully.

Still though,for some reason, Megumi Takani had the image that if she did crack his skull, his mind would be twisted and knotted and unreadable no matter how hard she'd stared at it.

* * *

><p>His eyes closed, his lungs breathing in deeply. He hated getting help. He never needed it, no one ever offered it to him when he did need it, but everyone 'saved' him when he messed up and harped on him to be more efficient.<p>

He didn't need that. Help could go to Hell.

Not many knew he actually was a child of the Oniwaban, full-blood. His parents died during a mission and he was put in the care of a friend outside of the Oniwabanshu, in hopes that he would lead a 'normal life'. He quickly found how pointless his parent's efforts had been when his odd looks and ugly face that they conjointly blessed him with, made everyone but the man who raised him avoid him like a plague.

Like a demon that he appeared to be, they pretended he didn't exist and dubbed him the demon's name of 'Beshimi' because of his nervous habit of clenching his teeth too tightly. It actually was something he had little control over and he had trouble to this day forcing his jaw to fully open when he talked without focusing too greatly. None the less, despite not being able to do a thing about it, the children all around made fun of him.

He actually forgot the name he was born with, though he carried it with him until he was five, therefore making that wretched name the only name he ever knew. He never did grow much taller than what he was when he was ten, understanding that both his parents were short. His hair was a chaotic mess that also never abided his wills and he had terrible eyes that seemingly glowed in darkness because of his lack of properly round pupils.

The man, whose name he forcefully pushed to the back of his mind now, never made fun of him though. Calling him 'boy' was a common practice but it wasn't out of mockery or heartlessness, so it was actually very comforting.

The man was at first a very caring person, in the sense that he provided him with all his needs and went out of his way to teach young Beshimi how to read, write, do arithmetic, and even master puzzles. He provided him with anything he would ever want, scrolls upon scrolls, quizzes upon quizzes, and tests upon tests on his request. It was nice, and despite the neighboring children on their lane in Kyoto constantly berating him for his looks of 'evil', he lived in an almost blissful peace.

Until the man left. He didn't die, Beshimi confirmed with the note posted to the outside of the building. It was an eviction notice, and at the bottom of the scrap read, **I cared for you too long **in the oh-so painfully recognizable handwriting of the man that had 'cared' for him. However, seven years seemed too short, and Beshimi was confused and scared all at once as he was thrown out into the street with absolutely no one and nothing. He left his lane with some hope, looking for the man, but he never did find him. He never earned enough money on his own to leave Kyoto either, and it was in Kyoto he became a street rat.

He hated those days.

"Eh?" Beshimi opened his eyes and blinked at the moon above him, "Wha-?" He had fallen asleep! Something that didn't usually happen in the moonlight, sleeping was more of a day thing for him, and he rubbed his eyes under the twinkling stars.

Soon it would be his turn to watch the fox in her den, if, judging by the moon, it hadn't passed already. He hopped to his feet and shuffled away to switch positions with Hannya, who may very well kill him with his own demon face.

When he finally got there, late as he guessed, Hannya looked at him strangely, and left without a word as Megumi sighed deeply and went toward her private room below them. Beshimi lifted his nose a little in the air, noting that the fox was retiring a bit early for her usual self, and she did walk with a sort of slouched lumber.

_Tell me she's not depressed again! That would be pathetic..._Beshimi thought as he darted noiselessly over the tiles to her bedroom ceiling. Meeting her just as she opened the door and gently slid it closed behind her. He laid across the rafters and rustled through the inner lining of his shirt for a block of wood and a kunai. Finding them he chipped away at wood before placing it down on the tiles and rubbing his hands. He didn't feel like dealing with the cuts today, gods' forbid he make a mistake like last time.

Megumi shouldered off her top dark blue coat, revealing the soft pink yukata underneath, before that too was slid off to show the the white layer beneath that. Beshimi watched lazily, eyes not really focused on anything in particular, before her white shoulder poked through and her naked back was exposed to him.

Then, something strange happened. He adverted his eyes quickly, his mouth pursed in a tight line.

Seeing a woman you regularly hate get undressed unsurprisingly doesn't excite one as the act usually should. And, he never had much luck with women in the first place, and made a sort of wall between his feelings in them that was from mere tolerance and a dull sort of boredom for the creatures. So, making sure Megumi didn't make her escape while getting dressed for bed never really occurred to him as arousing.

This time was, oddly enough, not like all the countless other times. He found his eyes darted away and focused on a corner instead of her legs as she stepped out of the pile of her clothes heaped around her socked feet. It was just...common courtesy since she was unaware of his presence, and all being fair, wouldn't like it if he spied on her. He wasn't a peeping tom either so it just made sense to look the other way. Or so he told himself as he blushed madly towards some cobwebs.

_Must be how slow she did it. Yeah, it has just been a weird day_, Beshimi tried to convince himself, _Just woke up and she's doing things extra slow. _

He heard cloth against skin, and after a long wait of rustling and shuffling, he finally knew she was in her sleeping wear. Turning back to her, as she sighed, he swallowed and decided to pick up the block again.

_It wasn't a big deal, _Beshimi took a long shave at the block, _So what if I decided to look somewhere else than her stupid back?_

All the same, pink lined the upper bones of his cheeks as it always did.

_Baka!_ he cursed to himself, _It's like you're seven years old!_

* * *

><p>Megumi fixed the collar of her sleeping yukata. She felt so sticky, the day unusually hot earlier, and she sweated quite a bit. Deciding instead of the much needed sleep she needed tomorrow, for the escape she carefully planned, she would take a bath before resting.<p>

She turned and, of course, didn't notice the stray cat follow her to the bathroom above her. She always had warm water for her when she came back, Kanryu trying to please her so his golden goose wouldn't run away, and she just slipped from her _yukata_ and slowly sank into the pleasant bath. She sighed as the water lapped against her softly and closed her eyes as the sounds that the water made calmed her and all the tension left in her body from the day floated from her and into the bath.

Beshimi occupied himself by carving, ignoring the content humming she, actually beautifully, sang to herself as she scrubbed the day away from her pale skin.

Getting undressed and redressed was one thing. Bath time was another completely different thing. And he wasn't in the mood to deal with it, so he kept his eyes everywhere but on her.

He bit his teeth harder together and took another long shave of the block.

She was beautiful, any man could see that! But what most men didn't see, or tried to ignore in any case, was her attitude that made any man flinch at her harsh tone and emasculating demands.

Beshimi frowned at the crooked piece in his hand, he wasn't paying attention like he should of. Instead his eyes kept looking over at Takani. Despite his direct attempts not to peek tonight. Damn, at least that woman had a good body. Still, poison is poison no matter what it looked like. And it wasn't like he loved her, no, it was safe to say he hated her. She was such an annoying woman! A woman still, but an annoying one!

He needed to be careful, he was like a cat, and she a fox undeniably. Sometimes, foxes devoured cats when they were hungry. And this woman was hungry for freedom. The cat would be wise as to not jump into the fox's fangs.

It was a short bath, as usual, and Megumi got up and dried herself with a towel before pulling the light material of her sleep-wear back over her skin again, hiding her soft smooth skin and body as she tied the _yukata_ as tight as it would allow over her curved middle.

Beshimi crawled back to her 'bedroom' and watched as she laid down, smiling to herself.

_Tommorow, I'm free, _Megumi slowly let her head fall into the pillow, _And there is nothing that pig Kanryu can do about it. All I need is for Beshimi to do as I want him to._ And she quickly fell to sleep as she hoped for. It was a big day tomorrow.

He laid his head down into his folded arms and blinked slowly at the sleeping form below him. Funny, he was on top of her. Oh, but that joke is short lived as he suddenly had an image of a fox pulling at the sinewy muscles of a thin stray cat with its jaws and licking its red lips happily.

He really was a stray cat many years ago. He lived like a urchin in the streets of Kyoto, never finding who he was looking for, and starving horribly. A fumbler even back then, but a thief, he would steal what he ate but be beaten unexpectedly when they found him sleeping in the alleys in the morning.

Looking back now, it was obvious why, as he hung around richer communities and he was the only one who possibly could've pilfered the goods. He really was a fool to not think about that. But the food was good, what he could take of it, but he just couldn't quite decide if it really worth all the beatings he endured.

The men of the houses would kick him, slap him, anything harmful. Some armed with wooden poles, and a distinct temper, 0would hit him until he couldn't wail anymore. All of them though, would watch as he crawled away and licked up the blood from the openings in his skin the attacks split open as he tried to defend himself, and with a bizarre sort of interest too.

Like a stray cat, they would notice.

He sniffed and absently licked at his palm, it was salty. But it was not a metallic salt but rather, an almost sweet taste from his sweat. He licked his thin lips and checked on the still sleeping form of Megumi Takani.

How bad did that woman still want to escape? Maybe even to die?

He wanted to die back then when he was young, as depressing as that sounds. He was 'useless' to all the rich people, a bad omen to children as his looks once again earned him the name 'Beshimi', and a threat to all merchants' businesses that sold food or clothes. He really wanted to die, finding nothing easy in life, but he clung to life because the action of trying to survive gave him a small purpose because nothing else did.

He lived day to day with the children's taunts, the beatings and the scrounging, forgetting what life was like before, almost dead because that was what he could do. Just trying to live was a worthless purpose that he treasured because he had no hope of ever becoming well again. It was a terrible existence and when he was eleven it ended.

A child, scrawny but tall, towered over him and yanked at the hair that stuck out on top of his scalp. He pulled him up, his feet kicking at the air helplessly, and then threw his already battered body easily into the wall of the alley.

He remembered growling, then hissing. The child backed away but then narrowed his slug colored eyes, bravely saying, "Demon, I'm not afraid of you."

"Go away," His voice rasped horribly from never using his words everyday, if at all. It didn't help Beshimi either that he was just hitting puberty so his voice was rough and cracked. All in all, he ended up sounding like a crow.

"_Hai, Hai," _The boy flicked his forearm, "I will, as soon as you stop plaguing us, Beshimi."

"Leave me!" Beshimi hissed and curled his fingers, like claws.

"I will not until you leave," The boy pulled back his arm to strike him.

Catching his aimed hand in his own, Beshimi blocked the first punch before attacking the boy's leaning face before the boy could find a chance to hit him again.

The boy screamed and jumped back, holding his face, short bright red lines from the long nails that Beshimi never trimmed in his now three-year old lifestyle. He blinked and winced at the stinging pain, opening one eye that wasn't scratched and a horrified expression painting itself over his face.

The boy cursed him and stomped his feet around, screaming at him with his hands still clutching his face, "Useless, pathetic, ugly nothing-!"

Something in his head snapped. As Beshimi looked at the boy, spoiled and rotten as he was, he couldn't help but thinking how much _better _he somehow was, even to this kid. The boy was thin, but soft in his muscles. Beshimi wasn't. The boy was mean. Beshimi never was. He had seen this boy lie, cheat, and spread rumors. Beshimi never did any of that, and he found his fingers twitching again into curled makeshift claws. His clamped mouth was revealed past his grimacing lips, and his whole short body shook with anger as the boy continued to yell at him. That was, until Beshimi's claws met his face again, tearing at his eyes.

"SHUT UP!" Beshimi felt every sinew in his body tremble with something horrifyingly resembling glee as he sat crouched on the body beneath him, slamming his nails into his face, ears, and neck. "_You're _the uselesss- one! _You're _pathetic! _You__'re _the ugly one! I'll make _you _ugly!"

Beshimi madly swung his hands into the soft skin, "You think you're better than me?! WHY?! Because you have food? You have someone that loves you!? Who's better now?" He gave an extra hard swipe with his last sentence, before his hands started to move in a flurry of speckled blood and quieting cries, his eyes contracting into even narrower slits. He hissed and spat, like a crazed animal, until the boy laid unconscious underneath him minutes later. Shaking at the realization at what he had done, Beshimi turned and ran away as fast as he could from the alley, leaving the limp body behind.

Not even a day later, the boy's father came from the doctor's office and was ready to make Beshimi pay for the scars his son would forever have on his once 'perfect' face. Apparently, the boy even had to have an eye removed from his skull from the 'demon's' onslaught. Beshimi neither ran from the sight of the man or made a move to avoid the first strike across his own face. He figured he deserved it. Two more men followed the boy's father and then, as he remembered, all Hell broke loose.

He was held up by his ragged shirt at first, then the two acquaintances of the father held him by his arms. The father grabbed his hands and looked at his nails, bloody to the ends of his fingertips from where Beshimi had nervously bit them down already, thinking, worrying. He whimpered as the father slapped his face again.

"Demon!" The father's rancid breath wrapped around his face as he leaned closer, "Do you know what you have done? The doctor said that he never seen such an attack from bare hands! He called it monstrous!"

"_Go-Gomen nasai!" _Beshimi felt the corner of his mouth trickle with salty liquid, as he bowed his in apology, "I didn't mean it! I-!"

His teeth rattled as a fist crashed into his chin. He blinked, eyes gleaming in the dark, and felt the men at his sides drop him to his knees.

Head bent, he waited. Then it came, hands, feet, yelling, all at once. He distinctly saw and heard his hands and body slap against the stone pavement as he was pushed onto his side before he couldn't see anymore. The men came at him with everything they had, anger at the boy's now disfigured face from the 'demon' and they unleashed it upon him, Beshimi. After the first attacks became more and more aggressive, his body became slowly numb until he felt almost nothing but dull pain. He heard cracks, his bones, and he occasionally heard someone step in something wet, most likely his blood but his eyes were so sore he didn't want to open them.

Then something happened. It all stopped.

Then a sound like a gasp and someone leaning over him. The mother of the boy, "What have you done?"

No four words ever sounded more horrified to him. It was quiet but held such a great emotion behind it that Beshimi to this day could still feel the impact on him when he heard it. It felt like a heavy thud in his stomach before a strange flutter in his chest.

"This is the demon who scarred our son, if you remember woman!" The father huffed, tired from the effort of beating him to death, "Wife, you're sympathy is-!"

"You're horrid! All of you," He felt a light hand on his cracked and bleeding forehead, a warm one, "It's just a boy, younger than our own."

"That boy, as you call it, attacked our son!" The father bellowed and tore the woman away from him and planted a heavy foot into his diaphragm. With a puff of air and a groan he turned over and curled into a tight ball. The father, almost satisfied with his reaction, didn't do anything more for the moment, coldly finishing,"A work of a demon, this boy is poisoned with it!"

"I-i'm sorry."

Choking on the blood that rose in his throat he felt another cruel stomp and another. He cried out into the night, knowing no one would help him and he felt every strength of every form leave him. The woman shrieked then he searched for life on his chest with a sore hand, looking for a fluttering heartbeat that would tell him his _human_ life still remained in him, but all he felt was blood.

* * *

><p>His eyes were too swollen to open but he moaned out. A voice, not much older than him, but a rougher tone then his own, ordered him to be silent. His cries were cut off short as he clamped his teeth together. Only after whole minutes passed did he dare to try and say something.<p>

"Where am I?" He swallowed and a lump, moved downward, even making a popping sound in his throat, but all the same soreness still remained, "_Ano…_ uh...n-nee-san?"

"I'm not you're brother," The voice was sharp. "I'm Hannya."

A name of a demon. "Am I in Hell?"

"Goodness!" Came a much friendlier voice from the foot of his bed, a girl's and as sweet as honey, "You're not a lot older than me and you think you're dead?"

"Omasu-chan," The rough voice seemed slightly put-off, "He almost was dead if Okashira-sama didn't find him."

"O-Okashira-sama?" Beshimi moved his head around, trying to locate the direction of the voice, "W-who's he? Why did he save me?"

"Our leader," Came a curt answer, "Leader of the Oniwabanshu."

"My parents were Oniwabanshu," Beshimi blurted then felt a palm on his stomach and gagged, "Ack!"

"Don't lie, I know your type! I was like you once!" Hannya removed his hand from the wounded ribs, apparently crossing his arms as Beshimi's bruised ears heard shuffling, "Live like an animal and lie when it will get you what you want! Well, forget about it! Our Leader is merciful, but he will not take any strays who are useless!"

"I'm not usel-" Beshimi swallowed again painfully, not entirely sure if what he was going to say would be true. He tried again, only softer and less defiant from fear of the palm that nearly pushed his rib cage in, "I-it isn't nice to lie. So...I don't lie."

"Aa," A smooth voice spoke from the 'corner' of the room, "Is that so? Hannya, perhaps you shouldn't hit someone so wounded."

It was a young voice, a boy's, younger than him maybe from the twinge of clear innocence in it. However young it sounded though, it was firm and commanding along with its lightness. The strangest thing Beshimi ever heard. He looked towards where he thought it was, and asked with a raw croak, "W-who are you?"

"Aoshi Shinomori," He answered in neither a kind or harsh voice but a very serious one, "And our Okashira will see you now, though you cannot see, can you?"

"N-no," Beshimi struggled to open his eyes but it gave him a headache in the attempt.

"I want to see the demon the Leader caught!" A voice of a girl appeared from what he guessed to be the doorway since the girl apparently hadn't seen him yet, "Ah! Someone beat him up good, the Okashira?"

"The leader found him this way!" 'Omasu-chan' stated to the new voice and then added, "And he's a boy just like us, Okon-chan!"

The one named 'Okon' yelled back, "I'm not a boy!"

"Silence, both of you!" Hannya roared but was simply ignored as the girls retaliated with a, "Make us!" from both girls followed by a "Nyaaaaahhh!"

Beshimi smiled for the first time in a long time and a shuddering gasp of his thin broken body served for his laugh.

"The Okashira is coming," Another boy, slightly younger than all of them it seemed by his childish voice that sounded near like a girl's, called from the 'doorway', "Make sure he speaks politely."

"Right Shiro." Okon, with the more 'womanly' voice than Omasu, addressed the boy, then Beshimi, "Can you talk politely?"

"Do you even know how?" Hannya inquired, sounding as if he doubted it.

"Aa, when I feel like it," Beshimi frowned, for a moment forgetting the palm that nearly broke more bones, if that was possible, earlier, "I will if you're Okashira is someone worth it."

"He saved your useless life!" Hannya sounded angry but a light pat, probably from Aoshi as he spoke next, cut him off from any insults he may have spewed next.

"He comes."

"Hello, little demon," 'Okashira', a wise old voice, warm and solid, greeted, "Kuro rushed to tell me you've woken up. Why not open your eyes, child?"

"I-I can't." Beshimi felt sore already from talking so much, his throat in pain from being stomped on, and lack of use of his vocal cords in the first place aided his discomfort, "M-my apologies, Oka-"

"No need for that," The voice's strong undertone sharpened firmly for a moment, before softening into a slow thoughtful pace, "Tell me boy, why on my way back from an errand, did I find your small body out in the street in a pool of blood?"

"I-" Beshimi closed his hands, some fingers not closing because the were broken and had miniature splints tied to them with gauze. His nails still scrapped along the sheets with a 'skritch' sound. He remembered numbly thinking that maybe the rust color in his nails remained from the boy's face blood, or maybe it was caked with his own blood from holding his chest. He couldn't see it and after a while, maybe from shame of what he did, he just mumbled, "I-I'm Beshimi."

"Hhnn?" The man seemed slightly confused than slowly comprehended by a heavy exhale that dragged out for a long time, "Ahh, I see, the boy that scrounges for food. A face like a demon and a diminutive body. Sleeps with the stray cats during the day and steals during the night. Yes, I have heard of a 'Beshimi', but what is your real name?"

"I forget," Beshimi didn't move, it hurt everywhere, all he felt was strong pain, "Beshimi is my name."

"You're parents call you that as well?" The Okashira answered for him a second later, "You do not have parents that is why you live like a stray. Have no fear, we take strays in all the time."

"Okashira?" Hannya seemed to question the act, "Is he worth anything? He's so…small."

"Aa, but you were broken and thin when he found you, Hannya." The voice remained level around him. It laid heavily on top of Beshimi like a blanket that he found during winter. The coldness of doom running underneath him but possibly something to save his useless life above him.

"I wasn't a dwarf," Hannya closed his mouth as Beshimi heard teeth clicking together, "Okashira-sama, I do not see how this boy could do anything. He steals but is foolish enough to get caught! He may never walk or feel his limbs again by the look of him and he is-!"

"It is in his blood," The Okashira seemed to smile slightly by a warmth in his voice, "His parents were Oniwabanshu. Strong for their size. They could overcome this, and I no doubt he could to."

"How do you know he is the missing son?" Aoshi spoke, as levelly as the Okashira, but still questioning.

Beshimi felt a heavy veil fall over his beaten head, as the Okashira answered, "With a face like his, who other missing child would he be but our departed Takagi and Kyoko's?"

Takagi and Kyoko, such plain names but it made him smile again as he fell asleep**.**

* * *

><p>"Nnn?" Beshimi blinked as he woke up in his folded arms. Checking Megumi hurriedly, he sighed as the form shifted in her sleep. He hadn't received a lot of rest yesterday. Maybe that's why he slept now.<p>

Drowsiness still flooded his brain, so he decided he would sleep anyway. Megumi wasn't going anywhere, she always stayed like that the whole night everyday.

He closed his eyes and immediately began to dream again.

It had been three days and with care from the voices around him, he could open his eyes, and was at first surprised at the many wrappings that covered his welts, cuts, bruises and broken bones. When the twittering girls left, he moved the bandages on his arms and licked at the stinging cuts and busted welts that the bandages painfully pushed on.

Aoshi, who he never noticed entered, very like a ninja as he learned he was, spoke from the side of the bed and surprised him, "Your licking your wounds like a hurt animal..."

"Leave me be," Beshimi licked under the bandages and whimpered at the pain he felt everywhere else, but the cool saliva brought relief to the burning sensation the strange medicine gave him, "I don't need your help, and never needed anyone's help..."

"Hmm," Was all the reply that Aoshi gave as he sat still as a statue and continued to watch him lick all his arm wounds with almost the same fascination as the men that would beat him up.

Much later, when he was well enough to walk on his own, his broken legs fixed, he was sent to finally see the Okashira.

And such a Leader he was. A tall posture, Aoshi at his side, and a very fearsome face, but a light smile dancing on his lips as he looked down.

"Are you well, Beshimi?" The Okashira leaned down, and smiled with an old mouth but with very straight and strong teeth, "Ah, I have a son, you know?"

"Hehn?" Beshimi lifted his head from the _tatami_ mats that he had pressed his forehead into upon seeing the important man that saved his existence, "What did you say, sir?"

Okashira stood again and looked down at him from over crossed arms, "I have a son. He met a normal woman and they will have a child, I suspect. I also knew your father and I know as a father he would never want you to be what you are now."

"L-leader?" Beshimi lifted his upper body of the ground and, on his knees, begged, "I-I don't want to leave. Let me become Oniwabanshu and I won't disappoint you! I promise you that I would fall to a thousand punishments before I disappoint you, Okashira-sama."

"A way with words, boy," Okashira seemed amused, "Very well, become Oniwaban, become one of us. But be warned, it is not an easy life. Your life of pain thus far will seem a pleasant dream from what training you'll have to endure to catch up with the rest."

"Okashira, as long as I'm not a demon any longer," Beshimi blinked under his furrowed brows, "I will be happy with all kinds of pain."

"But a demon is what you must be," Okashira smiled at the look on his face, "An Oni. A Oni-wabanshu. Ninjas."

"I will be honored," Beshimi smacked his head back on the floor, "Ah…ow-ow-O-Okashira-sama? Leader, I will train using nothing but my all and I will be…use-useful. I will be the best."

"Well," Aoshi spoke up, "We wouldn't want you to be useless. But know that only _my _men will be the best."

"Cocky boy, Aoshi," Okashira almost fondly looked at him, "A good leader he will be someday, perhaps if he can learn a bit of humility."

The Oniwaban uniform that everyone wore, the children all excluding Aoshi and Hannya wearing shorts instead of long pants, was presented to him in a smiling Omasu's arms.

"Ah," Beshimi reached for it, his arm still wrapped in Omasu's care, "Th-thank you."

"It's your size I'd suspect," Okashira turned back to the scroll hanging on the wall, "Let me know if it does. We haven't had someone of your size in a very long time you'd understand. Eleven years really."

"Ohn," Beshimi gripped the fabric, also getting the adult long pants that Hannya and Aoshi wore, "This is-"

"Make sure you catch up within the next three months."

* * *

><p>"Fool," Present day Hannya threw a palm into his gut, awakening him from one of his fonder memories.<p>

"Gak! What?" He hissed low in his throat.

Hannya stared at him menacingly through his mask, "Only a fool falls asleep on guard duty. Wake up and go. I am here to make up for what you lack, fool."

"Oh," Beshimi got up and moved back through the tile, looking down once to see Megumi still asleep with the early dawn across her sheets. "Uh…fine then."

Beshimi dissolved in the shadows, one of the many techniques he some what controlled during his hard years training and trying to catch up to Aoshi and Hannya, and not even Hannya could hear his feet dash away between the rafters and tile.

Megumi below woke up and smiled, just as happy as she was last night. _Today I'm going to be free._

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><p><strong>End chapter four...<strong>

**Next Chapter/Megumi puts her plan into action. What does it have to do with the little demon ninja?  
><strong>

**Review?**_  
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	5. Chapter 5: Plans Unfolding

_**A/N: I had a lot of fun with this chapter but, though I don't think so, some of you may call it out on OOC-ness and I apologize in advance. I also I'm sorry for any grammatical errors. I hope you review!**_

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><p><strong>In this chapter: Megumi puts her plan into action, proposing something to the little demon that catches him off guard.<br>**

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><p>Chapter 5: "Plans Unfolding"<p>

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><p>"You, peeping again?" Megumi looked up from the pestle and frowned at the slightly too open tile. She was hoping her guess was correct and the little creep actually did watch her make the opium, (for what reason she didn't know) everyday at this time. Maybe the misplacement of the tile was from when he stabbed himself with his knife, but maybe he was up there, hidden in the shadows right now.<p>

"I know you're up there," She said as no answer came from the darkness, "Beshimi."

Slowly, she heard a low hiss and then a raspy voice growling, "How'd you know?"

"Ah," She smiled, glad her plan was working so far, "I knew you couldn't help but watch me work. I'm just that beautiful to men sometimes."

Instead of a nervous laugh she expected, for that is what most men did when she caught them attracted to her, she heard a shrill cackle, "Keh, hnnn, hnn, hnn, hennnh, I'm surprised at how stupid you are!"

"What do you mean?" Megumi put her hands on her hips, "Am I to believe you don't watch me everyday?"

"If I was to peep on you, sweetheart," Beshimi moved the tile and exposed his ugly face through the crack, his clenched teeth pulled up in a sharp smile. It was a bit horrifying really to see nothing then a creepy face that he made suddenly appear from the blackness of the rafters, in fact it forced Megumi's pupils to shake a little before she got her bearings again. If her plan was to work she needed to keep control of herself.

"-I'd do it while you're changing or in the bath." He finished, much like she told him not to long ago.

"Ah, so what is so interesting about what I do in the workroom?" Megumi smiled her most inviting of smiles.

Beshimi scrunched up his nose a bit, clearly suspicious and wary of her by his thin wavering pupils flicking about, searching her and for words, "Hmm, the opium…er… no, the work. I like the work. I find opium boring, but watching your work is...I can relate."

Beshimi raked his fingers thorough his hair nervously. He wasn't supposed to talk to her for just this reason! Not while he was on duty, or she would know that Kanryu had her being watched twenty four seven and she would surely throw a big fuss. He couldn't lose his golden goose's pleasantness, if you could call it that; it was bad for business.

"With my work?" That was a surprise. Megumi thought the little creep had a thing for her, a thing many men had after seeing her sexy vixen face and body. Pathetic worms would beg for her hand everyday as soon as she became of age. But this little demon was trying to say that he liked not her beauty…but her work?

"Aa," Came his rough-voiced reply, "I like to see you work. I have a-" Megumi Takani didn't know his abilities yet, and ninja never divulged their techniques to anyone until the enemy found it out themselves, most the time dying for the knowledge.

He coughed and continued, "-hobby. I carve these little things, all looking the same. It is repetitive and as soon as one is done," He swished his hands between his bent knees, "I start on another from step one. Like your work. I find it…interesting."

He hated lying…it wasn't nice. And even a slimy, useless, man like him found it despicable. But what Okashira ordered came before his wants, came before his very life, because what Okashira said was his law; It was his reason for living at all.

"Hmm," Megumi made a face, not surprisingly, even to him the story sounded phony, though technically it was just a little bit of bended truth. It exactly wasn't the reason he spied, but something he noticed the while anyways. Perhaps that would make it more believable.

"Alright," Megumi let her face soften, "Why don't you come down here?"

"A proposition again, Fox?" Beshimi joked and waited for her disgusted face, but she, shockingly, only smiled up.

"It that's what you want." Takani pulled her long black hair free from the cloth that held it in place. She could seduce men easily. She wasn't really vain, but she was vain enough to know she had beauty and bothered to put makeup on every morning even in a place she hated.

"Auh," Beshimi made a weird strangled sound before coughing, "Ah, I get the joke now, sweetheart, very funny."

"Do you want me to be your sweetheart?" She batted her eyelashes. Unlike the other men, Beshimi was the only one who went out of his way to see her, most the time bothering her. Maybe Beshimi was like a little boy who has a crush on a girl. He'd be mean to her and pick on her but in truth, though he may not know it, he loved her, an odd thought by itself. But the circumstances made him the perfect candidate for her plan, if what she thought was true.

Megumi would pull on those strings that all men have until she could free herself of Kanryu. If Beshimi could slip away from the mansion without Aoshi and Hannya knowing his whereabouts then he could lead her out. If she could somehow make him…

"Ha," Beshimi said blandly, "Enough of your trickery, fox. I'm not stupid."

"I didn't say you were," Megumi smiled her most 'I'm-kinda-lonely-and-I-want-someone-could-it-be-y ou?' smiles, "But if you want the truth…"

"I do, lying annoys me," He hissed harshly and she almost lost her act, but thankfully she rehearsed in her head so many times it was like clockwork.

Megumi, like in her head, looked down almost like a little girl, so innocent, "I'm lonely in this mansion with no one to talk to. And though we argue-"

"I said don't lie," Beshimi growled and then sat back, only his eyes glowing in the shadows of the ceiling, "I hate liars."

"I'm not lying," This much was actually true, and convincing tears fell down her face at her aggravation that her plan may not be working at all and at the insensitivity and heartlessness of the one ugly little one above, "I've been lonely since the doctor was murdered and I would kill to get some fresh air or at least someone to talk too! And since-" She started to lie again, smiling inwardly at the one raised eyebrow the man above leaned down closer to de-shroud from the darkness, "I can't go outside without facing death, someone to talk to is all I want."

An awkward silence fell and his face was unreadable. Not like Aoshi's or Hannya's who seemed like something to nothing was going on in their heads. No, it was like so many _things_ were running in twisted scrambles in his mind and his face and eyes darted and twitched to try and find the truth of her words. She swallowed, thinking maybe her plan was failing again.

Beshimi opened his mouth, his teeth clenched within his lips, and said rather quietly, "You're crying again, sweetheart."

"Hmm?" She blinked and felt the wetness fall down her cheeks. Quickly brushing them away and her pride overcoming her plan, she shouted upward but her head turned away, "So what of it, creep?"

"Aa, I thought the Megumi Takani was lost for a moment," He smirked, one corner of his mouth pulled higher than the other, "But I see the bitch fox is still here same as always."

"Ah!" Her eyes widened and she looked up at him, "What did you say?"

"Does it matter?" He looked amused, which, as Megumi quickly remembered, is a good thing to fuel her plan. However long it took for her plan to work, and what she might have to do to make it work, she didn't want to get into, but she prayed it would go smoothly.

"What's the matter, cutie? Cat got your tongue?" He licked the side of his mouth to end his sentence and disappeared from sight.

Megumi, slightly disgusted and clearly showing it on her face, took a step closer under the tile and looked into it after a pause to shake the shivers from her skin. Her voice was tight as she asked, "Where'd you go?"

"Here," His voice, but not his face, came from the rafters, "I didn't leave."

"Why are you hiding again?" She crossed her arms, returning back to her plan. With this man, it may be harder than she first thought. She lost her patience with him so easily. But, if her freedom was on the line, she was convinced she could do anything.

"I didn't want you to see my face just then," He poked out from the tile, his cheeks pink, but slowly going back to his dark brown skin color, "Ah, anyways-" He rolled his slit pupils.

"Are you coming down?" She was impatient, she needed to be patient! But she already asked, and in a tone that revealed her impatience as well. Though, depending on how you looked at it, might be a good thing.

She had to remember, he was a ninja, though he didn't act like it. She didn't know how Beshimi became one of Aoshi's four most trusted, but somehow he was and she needed to be careful as to not reveal her true intents.

A smile, an odd one she never seen before, spread over his lips, "Hmm? You want me down, fox?"

"It's creepy, how you're always in the dark," Megumi slowly said, hoping it was the right answer, "Come out where I can see you."

"Aa," He nodded and disappeared again.

"Hey!" She yelled up as no one emerged for some time, "You said you were coming down, you ugly little liar!"

No reply.

"Beshimi?" Her eyes searched for any signs that a diminutive man was still up there. Her eyes darted all over the ceiling thinking he might be around there. Had he caught on to her fib and was going to tell Shinomori now? A fear gripped her throat and the pit of her stomach tightened.

Suddenly something grabbed her shoulders and covered her mouth. Thinking instinctively it was Kanryu or his men, now aware from the little goblin that she was trying to escape, Megumi grabbed at the arm and screamed through the palm that covered her mouth.

"Boo," Beshimi cackled and dropped his arm, her face flashing with hot anger as she turned to see his face beside hers. He was standing on his tip toes to reach her mouth at all and placed his bony chin on her shoulder casually.

Megumi flinched away and crossed her arms, "Did you think that was funny?" She felt every nerve twitch against him and her plan that was in the process of crumbling along with her temper as his piercing rasp of a laugh continued.

"I do," He finally said and took steps away from her, wiping at tears of mirth that spilled from his large eyes, "Didn't you, sweetheart?"

"No, I didn't," She frowned but then smiled a little, her plan taking control once again of her mind, "Actually maybe it was a little funny."

"Heh," He rubbed the back of his head and gave that closed mouthed smirk again, "Well, you wanted someone to talk to, cutie, and now I'm here. What did you want me down for?"

"What is it you want?" She turned on her best charms and leaned closer. His eyes half lidded and he stuck out his palms.

"Look, fox, a stray cat would be wise not to follow a vixen." He smiled a little out of the corner of his mouth upon seeing her strange face, "I'm like a stray cat, I've been told. Have you ever seen a tom-cat chase a vixen, not knowing the difference between a female and a fox, and never to be seen again as it disappears into the foxes lair? Foxes eat cats."

"I'm not going to eat you." She shook her head, slightly confused.

"Well," He shrugged his small shoulders, "You could of fooled me by the way you keep trying to flirt with me."

Taking in the words, she blushed, "I-I didn't mean it like that."

"I'm sure you didn't, sweetheart" Beshimi scratched the end of his nose, "Who would mean it like that with me? But I'd watch what you say anyways, cutie. Some people aren't as understanding as me!"

He turned away from her, his bottom lip jutting up from his mouth as his thin pupils scanned the ceiling.

Having the urge, like she often did with people, to mess with him she put a slight hand by her mouth and Beshimi could almost see _kitsune_ ears angled on her head, "Oh ho? Is what I'm saying giving you ideas, pervert?"

"Ha!" He threw his head back and continued to stare at the ceiling dully, "Funny."

She felt freedom touch her as he looked back at her, but it was a fleeting feeling.

"I have to go."

"Why? What do you have to do that's so important?" She yelled but yelled in her head, _What's more important than my freedom?_

"I have other duties, and uh-" He looked at her than the hole in the ceiling, "I wouldn't think that Kanryu wouldn't be too happy about you taking a break to talk to me. So…"

"Oh," She looked down sadly. At least her plan was slowly working, but she rather it work faster.

"I'll see you when you go back to your room," Beshimi said quickly before jumping into the ceiling. The tile moved and then in a muffled voice he added, "But no funny stuff, fox! I'm not a stupid tom-cat!"

_Oh, I beg to differ… _"Alright, see you then." Megumi picked up the handkerchief from where she let if fall off and tied it back on her head with a tight tug.

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><p><strong>End Chapter 5...<strong>

**Next Chapter/ Beshimi takes the risk, and attempts to become friends with the fox.  
><strong>

**I am this close to shipping BeshimixMegumi...weird.**


	6. Chapter 6: A Vixen in Her Lair

**In this chapter: Megumi Takani might start feeling guilty, but it is her freedom at stake here! Still, her plan is somewhat shaky. For it to succeed, she must somehow become friends with one of the demons of the Oniwabanshu.  
><strong>

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><p>Chapter 6: "A Vixen in her Lair"<p>

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><p>"Takani," He greeted her with his head propped in his arms from her dining room floor.<p>

Megumi puckered her lips a bit, trying to make herself look 'cute' because she guessed that's what this repulsive man liked, calling her 'cutie' all the time anyways, "You're here before me."

"I said I'd meet you when you get back to your room," Beshimi held out his wrist and lightly flicked it, "So here I am, Vixen. What are you going to do now that I am in your lair?"

"Hmm," She closed the door behind her and put her hands on her hips, "I thought you said nothing 'funny.'"

"Oh, I didn't say I couldn't be funny," Beshimi cackled loudly and put emphasis on each syllable of his laugh, "See? Funny, sweetheart."

"Your hand," She noticed it for the first time, the naked skin on his non-gloved hand, for whatever reason he wore _one_ glove for, "It's better, isn't it?"

"Heh," He closed his hand and brought it to his cheek, scratching it with his index finger, "Maybe licking it isn't the best way to heal a wound."

"I'm a doctor, I know these things," Megumi nodded, not at all faking in her pride as a medical doctor. "I have been taught well."

"Oh? So have I." Beshimi smiled, his teeth pushing hard against each other, "Keh, Hnn, hnn, hhnn, You wouldn't believe what I'm trained to do."

_Talkative suddenly isn't he? He sure is trusting when someone says that they want to be 'friends'. _Megumi kicked off her shoes and walked over to the stumpy man before kneeling beside his stretched out body.

His cheeks flushed but he quickly hid it with a cough and by staring the other way.

"Why so friendly anyways?" Megumi forced her red lips to smile. It was hard to smile at someone you frowned at constantly.

"You were lonely, you said," Beshimi scratched his chest, "Well, I may have been a little bit too."

"Mmn? You have three other friends and Shinomori!" Takani bent one slim eyebrow and thought about how friendly, despite his arguments, he was with them.

A smile again, a tight one, and then a nervous laugh, "Hnn, hnn, hnn, I'm friends with them. They are my comrades and the only one's I trust in the world."

"Do you trust me too?" Megumi leaned over him, she needed to speed up the process of him leading her away in any way she could!

He blinked than flatly said, "No."

"Why not?" She leaned over more, trying again, "What do you have to be suspicious of?"

"Nothing suspicious except how pushy you are," Beshimi sniffed and then cackled at her wide eyed face, "I don't trust you yet, Megumi Takani. But you don't have to be so nervous."

"That makes sense," She played along. She was surprisingly a good actor when she put her mind to it. Maybe that will get her out of trouble if her plan ever back fired.

He sat up and stretched his arms, "Soo, Takani, I need to know…"

"Hmm?" She blinked innocently.

He turned and looked at her seriously, "What kind of friendship are you looking for?"

She 'thought' for a moment, "One where I can talk to someone and not feel so lonely."

"Well," Beshimi crinkled his eyes a bit, "That can be taken two ways and I want to know the one you intend."

She laughed nervously, "What do you mean?"

"I'm in the vixen's den and I want to know if I will get eaten or stay inside with no harm."

"And-" Megumi leaned closer, "If I were to say you'd be eaten?"

"I'd leave of course, fox!" He tightened his facial expression, "I don't want to be eaten, like a fool!"

Megumi sighed and rolled her eyes, _this would be so much easier if there was a normal man around here!_ "Well, other men didn't mind when I 'ate' them."

"I'm not like other men if you didn't notice," Beshimi frowned and then shoved his hands into his sleeves, "So which is it, vixen?"

"No harm," Megumi nodded.

Beshimi nodded in return and then lightened his face a bit more, "I'll hold you to that, Megumi Takani."

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><p>"Mmmmnn," He bit into the softness of the snack she offered him almost everyday, for some reason not all days, he would pop his ugly little head from some ceiling tile and show up.<p>

"Don't sound too happy," Megumi rolled her eyes again as he chomped away on the _mochi_ cake, "You might make me think you enjoy eating my food."

Rolling on his stomach, _this man barely sits up if he doesn't have to. _Megumi frowned as he popped the rest into his mouth.

"It must be hard to eat when you have tight jaws like you do, is there a reason?" Megumi watched as he ate the cake with chewing motions, which looked odd since he always had his mouth practically tied shut when unless he wised-talked or yelled.

He rolled back on his back, his spine against the pillows that went with the table and swallowed his last mouth full. "It's a nervous habit."

She raised a delicate black eyebrow, "That so?"

"Exactly, sweetie," He smiled then pointed back to the book on the table, "So tell me more, fox."

Beshimi was at first thought to be the stupidest out of the Oniwabanshu, minus maybe Hyottoko at times. But he actually craved knowledge and was interested in anything, Megumi found out, even the medical field that she thought he resented.

_"I don't resent it," Beshimi swiped his nose and left a black ink smear where his brush had accidentally rubbed past it. He was taking notes on treatment of broken bones for his own use on a scroll he provided for himself, a week's worth of information already scrawled on it after they proclaimed the so-called 'friendship'. "I resent doctors, no offense, cutie," He continued, "But if I can treat myself all the better for me."_

_"Hmph! Some things you can't treat yourself!" She pointed out and for fun swiped the book away from him._

_"Oi! I wasn't done!" He reached out for it and she held it away from his stubby arms, sticking out her tongue._

"Takani," He waved his gloved hand in front of her face, back now from the time her mind wandered to. Even more weeks later, he had read and noted over three of her biggest medical journals and he working on a fourth. "How do you make a pain killer?"

"Read the book," Megumi sighed and plopped her chin into her palm as he went back to the manual that rested in between his knees.

"I can't understand all this doctor language," He sniffed and put the book to the side, "You just tell me, fox."

"Fine," She sighed again and then went on to explain the simple ingredients to make a makeshift one, some tea recipes and then finally she was about to tell him about a useful plant that had a dangerous flower before she stopped.

"What?" Beshimi blinked as he leaned into his hand, his elbow on the table, and one leg bent up comfortably. "Fox, what?"

"You-" She began, then shook her head and started again, "You're really comfortable aren't you?"

Beshimi looked down then moved his elbow off the table, "If you think I'm being rude-"

Megumi shook her head again, "No, not that." A feeling of guilt passed over her mind and clouded it.

"What? You want me to sit formally like you do? I can do that, I just thought that-" He fixed his legs then patted the air with one hand, his large cat eyes becoming half lidded, "Never mind."

"Okay," Was all she could manage before thinking to herself, W_hat have I gotten myself into this time?_

She blinked as Beshimi was inches from her face, whispering so she could feel his breath on her face, "Don't move."

"Huh, Be-?" She stared wide-eyed than before she gasped as his hand shot out and touched her hair.

"GOT IT!"

"Got what?" She twisted to see what he had clamped in his hand, "Beshimi?"

He looked at the thing in his hand with a smiling face than looked back at her with less of one, "Fox, do you like bugs? This little guy must've came from the rafters with me when-"

"NO!"

"Oh," He threw it over his shoulder, a light thud in the distance of the room, "It was nothing then."

"Don't get to close to my face, again," She then thought, for the sake of her plan, and changed her mind, "When I don't expect it..."

"Oh? So when do you expect it?" He leaned back and yanked a kunai from his belt and a wood block from his shirt, "Megumi Takani?"

"That depends on how you warn me." She then gave another fake smile. It was her freedom, and in her lair she had to control the cat, guilt or not.

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><p><strong>End of Chapter 6...<strong>

**Next Chapter/ **

****A/N: Bet you didn't see them being 'friends' coming did you? (By the way, I decided they're just friends, despite the angle Megumi was trying to play there for a while.*Still kinda playing it the hoochie, lol) I apologize if you find this very 'OOC' but I think Beshimi is pretty undefined therefore free to bend a little in his character while Megumi would use anyone to earn her freedom from a horrible place like the mansion, and she was a decent actor for a while there by acting like a damsel in distress with Kenshin. If Beshimi and the other two guys didn't call her out she may have been believable ^^;.****


	7. Chapter 7: What Must Be Done

_**A/N: Ah, trying to fix the OOC-ness now, if that's how you feel it is.**_

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><p><strong>In this chapter: The time is right to throw the rest of her plan into action, if she can. However, that's the problem. Will Megumi's growing guilt stop her from obtaining what she wants so badly, or will she simply revise her plan?<br>**

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><p>Chapter 7: "What Must Be Done"<p>

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><p>"Aeh?" His face twisted up and his eyes grew twice their already large size, "What exactly are you asking, Fox?"<p>

"I-" She swallowed and tried to remain as casual as she had before, "I wonder where you go when you're not around. I asked Shinomori before and he never is quite sure, but you're always back when he needs you. I was wondering how it is you manage to do that. I know for a fact it's impossible for you to know when Shinomori needs you if you're so far away."

"Well," He lowered his eyelids and continued cautiously, something he did if anything concerning the oniwaban, especially Shinomori, was ever brought up in conversation, "My senses are unique, despite what you believe. I am a ninja after all, and you're not going to understand all that we are capable of exactly. As for where I go...I take trips to the city like everyone else would do if they could. But, since the others aren't allowed to leave, they stay here always-"

"The others don't ever leave the mansion grounds?" Megumi blinked, finding it hard to believe.

"Yes, that's right," Beshimi rasped, before looking guiltily downwards and rubbing his fingers together nervously, "By all means, I'm suppose to remain here as well. But,-uhm, I have a bit of a problem. A pick pocketing problem, and stealing around here would get me in big trouble. But, I can't help myself sometimes, so, when there's nothing else to do, and I get a bit a bored, I have to get out. The Okashira, he overlooks my absence. I am never away long."

_It seems I'm not the only one trapped here. _Megumi lifted her brows a little bit before pulling her eyes swiftly to the side. Beshimi was busy with a book his lap, "Why can't you leave?"

Beshimi made an obscure sound in his voice, before the room fell into silence as Megumi waited for an answer, and the demon seemed set on not answering. After some time, Megumi's delicate brow twitching impatiently, he bit the end of the ink brush he was working with and pointed down at the journal in his lap, "Hey, sweetheart, what does this mean? I hate reading this thing, all the directions are in Japanese sure, but the diagrams are written in Engl-"

"Are you going to answer?" She said a bit harshly, the impatience coming through in her voice.

He sniffed loudly and finally, thought rather slowly, replied, "We're to stay here and do our duties for Kanryu. He pays us all individually for twenty four hour protection, and we don't get paid if we slack in that duty. The pig is a little too tight with his money than the Okashira would like. He has made it very clear to us that if we ever leave for even a moment, we don't get paid that day. The good thing is that Okashira has made clear that he is the only one that can give the rest of us orders, but Kanryu still holds the purse in his hand. We need the money, so we do what he says most of the time."

"Need it? What do you men need with money?" Megumi raised her eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips, "I don't see what you need it for. As long as you work for Kanryu I suppose you eat, you sleep here since you never leave and-"

"We need the money for other things. Remember that girl I told you about...Misao?"

"Yes..." Megumi gave her head a light nod.

He had already talked at great length about a young girl they left behind some years ago in Kyoto. She was extremely attached to Aoshi, practically hero-worshipping him, while Hannya started to train her in the ways of ninjutsu as Aoshi did for him. For such a tender age, she advanced quickly, and soon was learning the more complicated moves. At this, Beshimi expressed a bit of gentle jealousy, before mentioning that despite her great skill in ninjustsu, she had much greater skill in getting along with others. She was a sweet, kind, and fun-loving child that had plenty of hope leading a normal life. Unlike themselves, whom only knew fighting.

Since the war was over, and continuing to live in peaceful Kyoto was proving more difficult than any of them realized, Aoshi decided to leave and find another way to survive. Hannya jumped to go with him, and Beshimi, Hyottoko, and Shikijou soon followed. Unlike their other comrades, they couldn't adjust to living as mere civilians.

So, after Hannya tucked Misao into bed, and checked on her to make sure she was sleeping, they left late that night without ever saying goodbye. Not a one of them could bear to face that child's tears, which so rarely fell down her cheeks, and which they knew would come if they told her that they'll most likely never see each other. And, it was for the best, or at least as Beshimi said it was, since she had no hope of leading a 'normal' life if she associated with them.

With that in mind, Megumi tilted her head and drawled, "And?"

"Well, we still send her money, or at least, we send it to Okina, the man we left behind to watch and take care of her. I hear she travels a lot, so she's probably putting it to good use. I'm sure she's learning a lot. She was a bright kid, you know what I mean?"

Megumi swallowed lightly, her eyes drawn softly together. Talking to him was becoming more difficult. She answered softly, "I can imagine."

Beshimi didn't seem to notice any hesitation from her at all. Indeed his eyes were still scrawling that book, and his mind was clearly on something else entirely, "I'd guess she travels really nice. We send quite a bit of money along for her after all, since our pay is pretty good."

A few moments passed, before the demon took a breath and continued on with a harder tone, "Though I hate this job just as much as the others. They don't say it, and I don't tell them what I think of it, but I can bet they feel exactly the way I do about having to answer to Kanryu. And how all those _Yakuza _thugs he hires are always staring at us. I hate this gloomy, stuffy place, and sure, we still stick together, but-" Beshimi then allowed his shoulders to droop from where he had held them up defensively, "But, not the way I'd like it to be."

Megumi had her shoulders lowered as well, her red lips cracked slightly open and her eyelids pulled in a little. This was something she hadn't felt in a while, especially since being first ensnared in this trap of working for Kanryu. It was pity. Not as strong as she has ever experienced this emotion, granted, but there was an identifiable hint she could detect in her heavy heart.

The demon, when ranting about how much he hated his job, sounded closer to a child than a man. He sat now with his shoulders hunched moodily forward and his pointy chin resting in his gloved hand. His thin bottom lip jutted slightly out, under his large eyelids halfway pulled over his big eyes, and with his brow furrowed.

In the other room, the clock ticked loudly by, and the only other sounds besides her breathing were Beshimi flipping the pages in the book with careless flicks of his fingers occasionally. Megumi folded her hands in her lap and thought to herself for a while, before she softly spoke up again.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Ah," He lifted his head and pointed a sharp finger back to the manual, "I've tried reading this Takani, but I just can't make head or tail of this thing. You never told me-"

"I asked a question Beshimi," Megumi frowned and forced the book closed with a slap of her hand. As she calculated a long time ago, and it was something that helped her plan work at the rate it was, he had a compulsion to listen to anyone who held themselves with a more higher grace. The exception being Kanryu, of course, since he was neither graceful or even much of a human being in Beshimi's eyes. To him, Kanryu was a slimy creature not worth naming often, except in moments of contempt, so she found out after the dwarf of a man opened up to her in the weeks.

A good thing she was a doctor though, or her plan may have never worked out. Her doctor-like air of business she was taught, to be friendly but still demanding, had many people no matter how cold, relax and open up. It took a lot longer than she planned, since for some reason Beshimi felt uncomfortable around doctors, but once he did he made up for all lost time by blabbering away whenever she commanded an answer from him.

Now, they were right on schedule. Though this time she demanded an answer again to feed her own undying curiosity more than continue in her endeavor to escape.

"_Aa_, I know you asked a question," Beshimi blinked and then reached for the medical journal that she held out of reach. He frowned sharply when she pulled it farther from him, that child-like pout dominating his features again, "It isn't nice to take things away from people, Megumi Takani." He nearly growled.

Her red lips curled upward teasingly, "But, it's my book, and I can do what I please with it. Whether I'm withholding it from you or helping you read what's inside it."

"Fine," He roughly moaned, "Repeat your question, fox,"

He yawned a bit, and dropped to his side on the floor, his elbow, like always, propping up his head and bent knee casually set up. The ink brush was thrown onto the scroll he was writing on leaving a big black blotch on it's very neat handwriting.

"I asked," She stared at the blotch. She had a carefully laid plan, and she didn't want a blotch to stain it and ruin her chances for freedom, "What did you mean by what you said earlier? You were talking about your comrades and how you didn't like it. Didn't like what?"

"Ah, I was-" Beshimi scratched the back of his head, his crooked mind working to find an answer, possibly a lie, before he lifted up his gaze, eyes closed into semi-circles as he cackled, "Hnn, hnnn, hnn, well, cutie, I guess I can't lie to you!"

This was a good sign if anything.

"I don't see them as often," He scratched under his chin and then opened his eyes, "You see as Oniwaban, we work as a team or solo. Me? I never was trusted with anything solo, or rather, when I was, I always messed it up. So Okashira, after Hyottoko joined our group, always paired me up with Fatty. But Kanryu doesn't ask anything of our skills, you know? I doubt he even knows what we can do. He just wants us to guard his stupid home, but there is only four of us, so we must split up to make up for lack of numbers. So, not only do we have to hang around this damnable place all day and all night, we barely even see each other since Kanryu wants one of us at all the key points."

"I see." Megumi lifted her head up solemnly and held it stiffly, "I understand why you get out when you can. It can be maddening being cooped up in here."

Beshimi's hand had maneuvered around from his chin, to the side of his thin neck, and his narrow pupils were locked on Megumi's sad form. He let his eyes fall to the floor and he said in a lower voice, "You'd know more than any of us."

"Which is why I'm grateful to you," Megumi smiled, and for a moment, a pair of imaginary _kitsune_ ears popped up on her head, "Though the company could be better. Like a handsome, strong man."

The ears twitched slightly, in a slower more calm motion than perhaps her more swiftly delivered and harsher jokes.

"I agree," Beshimi bared the edges of his teeth, "I could use a more kind and thoughtful woman myself."

Another moment passed, though less awkwardly than before. Megumi's _kitsune _ears disappeared gradually, and Beshimi, with a low in the throat groan, pushed himself back into sitting position.

"I do feel sorry for you, Fox."

"Hmm?" Megumi blinked, _what brought this along?_

"I think you might be a nicer woman, but you're always angry because you're locked in here. It makes sense, I'm certain even a more gentle-natured fox would become aggressive when caged. You're not any different."

"I suppose so," Megumi's eyes softened with renewed sadness, temporarily forgotten when she was picking on the demon.

"You know, you don't always have to listen to what I have to say," Beshimi looked to the ground, and Megumi widened her eyes in surprise, he looked guilty! Again, she wondered, _what brought this along?_ When she recalled that a few lines back in the conversation, she may have mentioned how she disliked being trapped with a bit more emotion than intended. And now _he _felt guilty for accidentally turning the conversation down that path. Damn him! Well earned guilty swelled in her chest, causing her to stiffen her entire posture.

He didn't seem to sense this much, or at least, he mistook the reason for it and continued, "I know I'm not the best companion, but I am the only one you have. If you have something you need to, erm...talk about...you could say something once in a while."

Megumi closed her eyes, breathing in deeply, and slowly the feeling of guilt was repressed and loosened it's hold on her frame. With the clouds of doubt freed from her mind, she was free to think solely about her goal again, and what she needed to do to achieve it. She smiled lightly and opened her eyes again, "Don't worry about me. You have your own problems after all. For instance, what if you get caught by the_ Yakuza_ guards one day when you're going out on your little trips?" Megumi leaned forward a bit, "If they ever saw you, wouldn't they report you to Kanryu? You all wouldn't get paid that day and I'm sure Shinomori would be displeased."

Bashimi looked a little nervous about the very idea of being ratted on, "Of course those scum would! And I would be lucky if the Leader could only be described as 'displeased.' Despite his cool attitude, Takani, I'll have you know that he possesses a fiery spirit that I'll never mess with on my life."

"Then how do you manage to do it? Surely its as easy as tip-toeing across the yard."

"Obviously," Beshimi looked a bit smug in that moment, his thin cracked lips pulled hard into a tight smirk and his nose lifting into the air under his sharply angled and closed eyes. He jammed his hands into his opposite sleeves and snickered dimly before gruffly murmuring, with a revealed sense of pride, "I have my ways. Those _Yakuza _buffoons will never hope to see me. Not even Shikijou sees me."

"I see," She said slowly, and looked down sadly, reminded of her impatience to be free by her rough sigh, "I wish I could get out again. Ever since the late doctor died, Kanryu doesn't even trust me to leave the mansion, I can't even go out on the grounds anymore. But, still that pig expects me to make that spider web opium, probably killing everyman in Tokyo!"

Megumi was shocked to find tears starting to line her eyelids. She wiped at them somewhat angrily and Beshimi was again looking at the floor, avoiding her gaze, allowing her to sniff back all that emotion that threatened to break loose. _It's only true_, she told herself, _Which is why I need to __leave here! I can't do this anymore! _

"You know," Beshimi mumbled, and Megumi looked up to find him nervously rubbing his chin again and peering upwards from the corner of his eyes with his narrow head tilted, "I suppose I...that is..."

"Yes?" She felt every nerve become electrified with anticipation. At long last, was this her chance? "What?"

"You have been kind to me, Megumi Takani," He bowed his head a little, making it more like a nod since he snapped his head back up so fast, "Not at first, of course. I haven't forgotten how many times you called me 'ugly'," He lowered his voice suddenly and finished, "But, you let me read your journals and give me someone to talk to."

"I can say the same about you-or the last part of course," Megumi swiped the air and with her eyes, encouraged him to go one with what he was thinking. If it was a she prayed, she needed him to go on before he trailed off like he did often.

"Well, I know a way to get even a person like you out undetected." He rolled his eyes and stared at her intensely, "A-an-and I can let you go outside," Beshimi smiled, "But we'd have to be back before Hannya knows you're gone."

"Wha-? Why Hannya?" Megumi watched as Beshimi stiffened and then twitched uneasily.

"Huh? Hmm, ah...'Cause… he's the one that checks to see if I'm doing a good job with my duties," He rolled his eyes again, never finding a spot to focus on until he looked at his scarred hands, "And of course if I'm not there, he'll wait for me and just suppose I'm on one of my outings. And if I get caught letting you back inside from taking you out, even if you aren't escaping, I'll get in so much trouble with the Okashira I might not live to tell the tale again."

"Is letting me escape that bad of a crime with you Oniwaban?" She jutted out her lip. If the risk was too much for the little demon to let her go...

"Well, failing a mission does," He rubbed his palms together, "I'm not saying I haven't done that numerous times, but not without consequence."

"Hmm, like what?" Takani watched as he heaved himself off the ground with a springing and rubbery jolt, and stand before her with all his stunted height.

"He may not look it but Okashira has some weird punishments for mistakes," Beshimi counted on his dark calloused fingers, starting with his pinky and ending with the pad of his thumb, "Like hanging me upside down with wire outside of the inn we lived at in Kyoto. Or making me eat this tea he made out of dirt. Or tying me to Hyottoko's back and left us for a day, of course Hyottokko was on that mission with me then. Not that it matters. Anyways, there was another time Okashira once tied a stray cat to the back of my head. And that reminds me! He once put a hot kettle of tea on my head and told me-, "

Beshimi then dropped his voice an octave, and smoothed out his words coolly, "Do not let this kettle fall, even if it burns, don't let it fall." Beshimi then growled, lowering his voice even more and speaking in a rougher and more gravelly tone, "Beshimi, I hope you realize you have a teapot on your head? By the way, how did your mission go?" Then he made a tight fist and turned his head, returning to his normal voice, "Well, I'll tell you Hannya! Not too well!"

Megumi held her hand to her mouth and, despite the herself, laughed a little, "Why is it that I can't put it above him for that?"

"Well, the old Okashira used to punish us properly," Beshimi shoved his hands into his sleeves, frowning, before plopping back on the floor with a hard thump and crossed-legs, "I have a couple of scars from those, but I don't think Leader wishes us harm even when we mess up." He closed his eyes, "He's very merciful to his friends and comrades."

"Which are you, Beshimi? Friend or comrade?" She leaned forward, her arm on the floor in front of her.

Without hesitation, Beshimi lifted his chin and solidly answered, "Comrade. I'm not a friend to Leader…not like Hannya." He shook off his coat and turned his back to her, loosening his shirts underneath hoisting it up against his body, exposing the long jagged scars and burn marks marking his skin.

Megumi widened in her eyes in surprise, but only for a moment, before she resumed her usual face. She flinched inwardly, but so like a doctor, remained faceless at the raised light brown scars that decorated his back, "Hmm." was all she murmured as he started to put his shirt down.

"As I said," Beshimi tugged the edges back into his brown pants, "I am a comrade to the Okashira. But, that has a different meaning than with other oniwaban. The old Okashira spared my life twice, and was in a sense my comrade as well, but he wasn't so tolerant of mistakes."

"So you see, as odd as the punishments that the Okashira deliver are," Beshimi pulled back the green coat back over his arms, "I wouldn't trade the Leader for anyone. He doesn't strike us and he finds us useful. Even when, we're not so sometimes."

"Aa, I see," Megumi nodded, and asked somewhat quietly, "You are the weakest, aren't you?"

"Eh? That isn't nice!" He screwed his face side ways and opened one eye fully before looking at her, "That may be true, Megumi Takani, but you shouldn't mention it!"

She laughed again, imaginary fox ears donning her head again, "Oh ho, you're too easy."

"And you're horrible," He shoved his arms into his sleeves, grumbling, "Stupid woman."

"So," She felt her tongue become dry, "About the taking me outside-"

"Tomorrow, if you want," He looked at her, and seriously asked, "You're not trying to escape, are you?"

"You have my word," She crossed her fingers behind her back, pretending to reach for the medical journal, and then produced the book and handed it back, "We're friends now, are we not?"

"_Aa_," He took the book and picked up the ink from the blotch, rolled out the scroll for a clean spot and then jotted down the first characters he found were important on the open page.

"_Aa_," She looked down at his working body closely, guilt rising in her throat once more, "We're friends."

* * *

><p>The next day, she didn't see a sign of the imp during the time she made opium. Holding the man to his promise though, she supposed she'd see him when she went back to her room.<p>

And as she guessed, when she entered her private quarters, there he was in her living room eating an orange from her living room table.

"Beshimi you said-" She started right away before even taking off her shoes.

"And I will," He slurped a slice of the segmented orange and then licked at the citrus juice, "But let me eat first, I'm hungry. Believe it or not, I do other things around here too, and it's been a bit of trying day. I had to listen to Kanryu 'conduct some business' with some other shady rats and endured a bit of a rant from him as well. I'm a bit tired..."

"Alright," Megumi sighed, she needed to be patient or this was never going to work, and it was so close. She had no idea how she was going to get away from Beshimi when he led her outside, but she would find away as soon as she could. The chance was all she needed.

He pulled a segment and extended is hand out towards her as she folded her legs underneath her and sat down, "Want one?"

"Hhn?" She blinked and took it, "I could get my own if I wanted one."

"Eh," Beshimi shrugged and bit into two pieces at once, finishing it off sloppily. He sucked on his fingers and then wiped it on his green outer coat, "All right, you wanna go outside?"

"Yes," She smiled and her eyes widened, the feeling of bliss rushing into her. She rose to her feet quickly and waiting with bated breath. Gods help her if she didn't find breathe before she got outside once more. He stood up as well and then held out his arm towards her.

"I'll help you up into the rafters."

"I need to be in the rafters?" She blinked up at the misplaced ceiling in the very high in the air ceiling. Then turned back to Beshimi, "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not," He shook his arm and pointed up, "To come and go unseen, and bypass the guards, you need to travel by the shadows of the rafters."

She sighed, _W__hat is a few cobwebs in my hair if it get's me free?_ Still, reluctantly she consented with a little groan, "Fine."

He smirked and put an arm around her waist, then hoisted her up, her body hanging off of his shoulders, and with his other arm holding the space behind her knees.

"Ah! Are you sure you can hold me?" She swallowed at already how close to the ground he was, how tall she was, and how close to the ground her face was.

"No problem, sweetheart." He cackled again and then leaped into the rafters, "I'm stronger than I look."

She felt air movement through her hair and past her body as he dashed, bent leg, through the ceiling. She felt webs catch in her long hair but heard only the slight rustle of them when they passed, his feet noiselessly touching the tiles and moving at a speed she didn't think capable of such a stubby man.

He stopped a moment, moved a ceiling door with a slight creak, and then swiftly hopped up with a jolt that she felt run through her body.

The setting full moon blinded her and she rubbed at her eyes as the night breeze touched her face. He put her feet gently on the roof tiles and then put a finger to his lips when she opened her scarlet mouth, a complaint of her handling on the tip of her tongue.

"_Yakuza_," He whispered and with his gleaming eyes swept them over the standing forms below.

She nodded and felt his palm enter hers, he stepped quietly as he pulled her along the length of the roof and she did her best to copy, not at all understanding how he was so silent with the wood shoes as he had. A tree limb, thick and strong, leaned over the wall and almost made a bridge to the roof. She smiled when she saw it, understanding what they were about to do.

He stepped onto it first, and opened his arms for her to jump into. Finding a bit to much pride for that, and since she didn't feel like being carried like a sack of rice again, Megumi took a firm step herself.

The leaves rustled and he bent his head into his shoulders in and wince, and his shining eyes glared hard at her through the shadows. No wind brushed past her skin and all was quiet as the guards below spoke.

"What was that, hmn?"

"The wind, Jiro, nothing else."

"There wasn't any wind jus' then, Karo."

Beshimi grabbed her clothes and yanked her off the roof, her feet sweeping into the open air. He placed an arm under her shoulders and one underneath her knees and jumped below to the grass on the other side of the wall. She heard the guards on the other side again, investigating the wall on the side she never wanted to be on again, before muttering.

"Night birds."

She let out a puff of air she held in and felt a palm in her own. She looked down at the hand, a black glove with the thumb and index finger exposed, gripped her snowy fingers tightly.

"Beshimi," She tugged her hand but he held firm, "You don't have to hold my hand."

"_Aa_," Beshimi glared, "If it is that you want to escape, now's the time to try."

A test. That's what this was. No doubt she could probably wrestle away from the little man, but he could easily call to the guards on the other side and a chase would ensue. Something she never anticipated since she expected to be far away and safe by then.

"N-no," She shook her head and curled her mouth upward, "I want to be outside, nothing more. I can't run from Kanryu, I know that now, but I just want to see…the moon, stars, and feel the breeze."

He blinked and then nodded, "I'll hold the foxes paw to make sure."

"Whatever suits you, you stray cat," She felt his grip loosen but the sinewy hand was still wrapped around her own, pulling her away. Dread filled her throat, but a new plan quickly formed in place.

They stopped in a spot with lots of grass and a comfy clean tree to sit under. The night wind rustled the dark green leaves and Beshimi sat moodily holding her hand and biting his other thumb nail.

"What's the matter?" Megumi leaned into his shoulder, once again pulling charms for the new plan in her head. He needed to trust her _completely _for her new plan to work.

"I shouldn't have done this," He spat out salt as blood trickled from his thumb and dyed his teeth temporary pink. "What would Okashira say?"

She huffed and then puckered her lips, just as moodily as he was acting, "Do you always do as he says? Can you not think on your own?"

"I think on my own, stupid woman," He snarled, showing his narrow teeth, and then relaxed his face into an almost sad one, "It is just, Okashira is everything. My life is his to use as long as it's useful. I would die if that it would protect him, help him, in anyway. **That** is what I think, fox, all on my own."

He was loyal wasn't he? "What would the Okashira say, Beshimi."

He dropped his voice again, smoothly going over the line, "You are staining the Oniwabanshu, Beshimi."

"Really?" Megumi found it hard to believe, considering he never struck him before, "Is that what he'd really say?"

Thinking hard, Beshimi raised his head, "It is what the old Okashira said to me once."

"Why?"

"I messed up of course." Beshimi bit at the memory and his thumb at the same time, "I let a-an enemy get away from us. She lied to me, and I believed her. I let her run away, and I paid for it. Aoshi-sama couldn't do a thing about it then, he wasn't Okashira, and he watched as I was...taught about what happens when I let my feelings get in the way of my duty and my orders."

"A woman?" Megumi felt the grip tighten as he nodded.

"A _kunoichi _from another clan," Beshimi frowned at the memory of the pretty face, the brown hair, and the misleading smile. She tricked him, for days, and he let her go, because he believed he loved her.

Stupid.

Megumi felt something in her chest tighten. If the man wasn't already going to hate her, he was going to loathe her once she escapes, maybe even want to help Kanryu kill her.

"Anyways," Beshimi stood up and tugged on her hand, "Let's go, before-"

"Hannya," She smiled at him, not at all having to think about it before she did. She wasn't a heartless person, but she needed to be free. Swallowing hard, and praying to the girl that ran away before her, she then added, "Can we come back tomorrow?"

"Sure, cutie," He said in a much better mood and then held out his arms for her to climb into.

It was what needed to be done, she told herself.

* * *

><p><strong>End chapter 7...<strong>

**Next time/ Megumi finally gets what she wants.  
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**A/N: Poor Megumi, but damn Megumi too! _**Ah man, do I hate Megumi, but after writing from her perspective, I find I sympathize with her. I mean, she lives with Kanryu! But still…I hope this is how you're feeling about her.**_**


	8. Chapter 8: The Taste of Freedom

**In this chapter: The time for Megumi's plan to unfold finally arrives. The only question that remains is, 'Is it truly worth it?'  
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><p>Chapter 8: "The Taste of Freedom"<p>

* * *

><p>"Beshimi," She greeted, her smiled less so, when she saw him already waiting for her, a bun she made yesterday for just this reason in his hand half-way eaten, "Another rough day I take it? It seems you're quite hungry"<p>

"Mm-hff!" He replied with a startled expression, his thin cheeks expanded against the food jammed into his mouth. Apparently, the cat-like demon did not expect Megumi quite yet, which made sense since in her impatience for freedom she left the workshop early today. He was blue in the face, choking on the forced overstuffed mouthful he swallowed, before he hacked and coughed. Megumi was about to bend down at pat his back when he smiled, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face, "Aa, yes, we will leave as soon as I finish eating."

"Take your time," She finished the motion of kneeling down and smiled a little too wide.

"Takani?" He never said her first name because that would be rude, he said, but he assured her he trusted her. He wasn't even checking to see if the snacks smelt odd, or looked off, or even sense the confection in his hand threaded with treachery.

Megumi swallowed and put on her smile again. They went out time and time again, and eventually, as she expected, he'd let go of her hand once in a while. And soon after, he didn't even bother to hold her arm in case she ran away at all. Last night, he even snoozed under the tree a bit, and smiled when he found her still kneeling beside him when he woke up. All for trust. A trust she'll tear to pieces tonight.

"Hmm?"

"You're not sick are you, Fox?" He lifted the bun out for her, holding it in her general direction,"Have you eaten? You're kind of pale."

"I'm fine," She pushed the bowl on the table closer to him, "There for you, especially."

His cheeks turned a pinkish hue as he nibbled on the bun in his hand, "Oh, ouhm, _arigato_ _gozaimasu." _

"No need to be so polite," Megumi watched as the snack started to disappear, "And you can…call me Megumi if you want, just Megumi."

His hand stopped mid-way to his mouth, his eyes held wide-open. He inched closer, the bun shoved aside to rest on the table top, and he put the back of his hand to her forehead, feeling his own at the same time for comparison with a focused expression.

"I'm not sick!" She flinched away from his hand, a slightly angry face pointed towards him.

"Coulda' fooled me, fox!" He shouted back, his eyes studying her carefully still, "You are acting strange. Why are you suddenly being all nice, hnnn?"

"Ah!" Megumi opened her mouth in a gasp, her eyebrows knitting together and her hands going to her hips, "Why can't I be nice? Is it so odd?"

"It's creeping me out," He swept the last bit of the second bun off of the the table and stuffed it into him mouth. Chewing quickly and swallowing somewhat roughly again, he rubbed his arms and said mostly to himself, "Give's me the chills."

"_You_ give me the chills," Megumi said flatly and then pulled on his loose white sleeve, "No more buns, let's go outside."

* * *

><p>It was another breeze-less night when they made their way to the tree that they just happened to always sit under, since it was an ideal place to be. It was near the mansion to get back swiftly, but far enough away to talk freely if they wanted to.<p>

"Beshimi?" She watched as his shoulders drooped and his held both his hands to his temples, and asked in a somewhat airy tone,"Are you feeling well?"

"Oh, fine...fox" He spoke slowly, and his voice a low grumble. It was obvious he was not as he claimed, confirmed when he gripped his stomach shortly afterwards. Queasiness etched itself into his sharp features and he managed with a wince, "I just- ugh-…have aches, Takani."

"Headache? Stomachache?" She watched his narrow head nod, "I'm sorry, Beshimi."

"Oh, don't be...sorry. It's not your fault," Beshimi was starting to sweat a little now, but his face reveled him to still be oblivious to it's cause. He wiped his forehead with the back of his billowy sleeve and he mumbled, "I-It couldn't of been your food. It wouldn't give me all these symptoms even if it didn't agree with my belly. I could be getting sick..."

Beshimi put an arm against the bark of the tree, finding it harder to stand by his own power now, and his stomach screaming a fiery curse as he felt his heartbeat in his ears.

A dark thought passed between his ears, and suspicion flashed behind his gleaming eyes as he looked over his shoulder at Megumi, quiet as the grave and her hands folded in front of her.

A moan escaped his lips and he stared into Megumi's unsmiling face, "M-megumi? What did you do?"

"A master of poisons and you didn't even notice," She shook her head almost sadly, before turning and walking away from him.

"Wait!" He turned and his knees gave out from under him, forcing him to crash down into the grass beneath him. He struggled to pull himself up, but every attempt was futile. The space between he and the fox kept growing, and amount of control he possessed over his own body shrunk.

"The vixen didn't kill the stray cat," Megumi said to the wind, softly, and shook her head. Her long, shiny, black hair adjusted according and fell over her shoulder, as she said with a little bit more strain in her voice, "But, that doesn't mean the stray cat should have ever trusted the fox. "

"Wha-What?!" Beshimi pushed himself quickly up with his hands, his body quaking with the effort it took from him. His pupils dilated suddenly, and he lurched forward, his head bending down between his arms.

"Hrkgh!" Everything spilled out of him. He coughed at the sour taste in his mouth, betrayal all the more bitter, before he wiped at his chin and set his eyes back on the retreating blurry form. "W-wait! Megumi! C-come back! You said-!"

It echoed painfully in her ears and in the night. She was not a heartless person after all.

But acting was something she could do. She turned and looked over her shoulder, "I lied."

His temper flared.

"Bitch! You fucking bitch! You lying fucking bitch! " He screamed until her back was disappearing into the line of trees, and his raspy voiced echoed into the darkness, "FOX-!"

* * *

><p>She ran until her heart felt like it was going to burst from her chest. Tokyo's streets were empty at this late time of night, and nothing hindered her in her blind fleeing. Megumi felt tears stinging her eyes now, and her breath hitched.<p>

_How cruel am I?!_ She wasn't evil, but she was mean enough to use anybody if it got what she wanted. She had it now, and though nothing would make her ever give that up, it did come at quite a price. One she didn't know would lay so heavily on her mind.

Beshimi wasn't going to die. She was a skilled doctor, and gave him just enough to buy her some time. He might be punished, but Shinomori would never hurt him badly, and he would never allow Kanryu to hurt him either. Megumi put a hand to her chest, finally feeling the fiery pain that shook through her tired body. She gulped in stinging breaths, the cold night air shooting down into her lungs like spears, before she wiped at the salty trails down her cheeks.

She was free, and because of that she could put the guilt of using Beshimi behind her, with some insistent coaching from her mind. He'd live. He might hate for the rest of his measly life perhaps, but he wasn't going to die any time soon. It was a lesson learned for them both.

Though it was sad that in this time of peace, a person still couldn't trust anyone. She frowned at herself, the guilt plain but the sadness less obvious on her face, and then stood up.

_No more thinking about it,_ she told herself,_ it's no different than the other men I've used to get what I wanted._

She breathed in the crisp air and rubbed her tongue over her pallet, freedom tasting bittersweet.

* * *

><p>Beshimi saw the very last of her disappear into the trees, not the trees leading back to the mansion, but away. He stood up and took a shaky step forward, only to fall into the grass headfirst, shivering.<p>

He hissed, desperately trying to clear his aching head. Beshimi tried to open his mouth, but it was stubbornly clenched shut. He attempted to focus his eyes, but they were melding the world before him. He knew he should alert the guards that the opium woman has ran away, but he wasn't sure he could fully believe it himself.

_How could I allow this to happen again?_! The demon growled inwardly, that clear thought the only thing he could understand and feel as his eyes closed, and his surrounding faded away from him.

"_AH!" He felt the water from the bucket Okina had in his hand slap against his Oniwaban uniform, sticking to his skin instantly. _

"_P-please!" Beshimi stuttered, shivering in fear and the wet cold, and grabbed his upper arms against the chill, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to betray anyone!"_

_He felt a rap against his chin, then the tonfa tip was underneath his face and forcing him to look up at the older man with slightly graying hair that stuck out on the sides. The senior ninja's eyes were terrifyingly hard, and Beshimi was sure that it meant he'd die then and there. But, Okina's aged mouth pulled down into a soft frown, and his eyes were subdued with sadness as well, "Beshimi...What have you done?"_

"_S-she said-" Beshimi started with a pathetic cry, but, too ashamed, trailed off and let his head fall against his chest. He was unable to meet the man's gaze, and the stares of the other oniwaban children huddled on the walkway, shocked and silently watching with gaping mouths and widened eyes.  
><em>

"_Foolish boy," Okina said finally, and shook his wise head, "How can you have believed her?"_

"_I'm sorry," Beshimi sniffed and then held his body tighter as the cold water mixed with the bite of night, "I thought she was telling the truth."_

"_What else have you done, Beshimi? Speak now or you may never again!" Okina bent on one knee and forced Beshimi's face to follow his, "You know well I'll cut your tongue out if I think you shared anything about the Oniwabanshu with the enemy!"_

_Beshimi sucked in a gasp, his eyes open in fear. Then, something behind his tiny black pupils flashed, and with quivering lips, he stuck out his tongue._

"_Oh, no," Okina sounded extremely small and it sent a shiver to freely rake through the little demon's fourteen year old body. With urgency, Okina grabbed his diminutive shoulders and gave them a shake, "Beshimi, what did you say? What did you tell her!?"_

"_She-she told me she wanted to be one of us!" Beshimi whimpered, his eyes shut tight against the hot scarlet shame, "She said she didn't want to be part of her clan any more. She told me she hated her clan!" He opened his wet eyes slowly and looked up, his head shivering in every effort not to cry or quail in fear, "I-I just talked, Okina-sama! I didn't realize all those things were important! Please, believe me!"_

_He was jerked off his feet, Okina shaking him more desperately, "Boy, spit it out! What did you tell her?"_

"_T-the Oniwaban group was mobilizing, O-okina-sama," Beshimi choked on his tears that he couldn't keep in, "I was telling her that I thought it was so…amazing. I didn't think she- That is, when I said it she smiled, and said she agreed. It was amazing. The Oniwaban were amazing...I didn't-"_

_Beshimi sucked in his next words as he felt his knees smack the rocks on the ground, a result of Okina's swift release of him. The old man towered over his feeble and dwarfed form, "Of course she smiled, you little fool!" Okina's harsh tone lashed into him, and Beshimi noticeably flinched. That, however, did not cause as regretful a feeling into Beshimi as his next words, " You told her what she needed to know! She can now tell her clan everything that they need to know to stop us tonight! And on top of that, you helped her escape!"_

"_I'm so sorry," Beshimi choked quietly, remaining on his knees in a silent plea for forgiveness._

_"We have rules for a reason, Beshimi! If you-!"_

"_Okina." _

_Beshimi felt his entire throat tighten at the voice of the Okashira behind him. Omasu yelped from the porch, apparently as surprised as he was at the Leader's sudden presence. Beshimi, shaking, turned to face the Okashira on his knees and looked up to the stony and livid face, "Please, Okashira... I-"_

_The Okashira's attack was swift enough that Beshimi didn't even see the bamboo cane sweep through the air to strike him over the cheek. But he felt the raw sting that followed. His eyes swelled up with tears, but he bid them not to fall and held a hand to the red skin instead.  
><em>

_"You damn fool!" The Okashira yelled at him, loosing all form of controlled paitence which was usual of him. Beshimi flinched and braced himself against the next swipe that landed solidly into his ribs. The pain shoved him to the ground with a cry, and Beshimi laid there on his side, waiting for more to follow. The crunching of feet against the ground echoed the steps of the Leader, until it stopped above his head with two firm stomps.  
><em>

"_Stand up, if you call yourself a man," Okashira leaned over his bent body, "Now, boy."_

_He stayed on the ground, his large eyes screwed tight and his face red with shame. _

"_So that's it," Okashira was frowning, he could tell from the edge of the voice, like a blade, "You must be punished, little demon. You know that, don't you? That is what you're expecting right now and waiting for, am I right? "_

"_O-Okashira, it was never my intention to betray anyone of the Oniwaban...I deserve whatever you punishment you see fit."_

_"Why do you lay there like a pathetic dog?" The voice of the Okashira was sharpened and honed in on him, "Get up, Beshimi."_

_Beshimi shook in his frame, his eyes still closed tightly against the guilt. _

_Another strike was issued into his wet back, the swipe of the bamboo stinging all the more from the water, and he cried with each strike that followed after._

_It ended quickly, but even then Beshimi did not look up. Pitifully, a sob escaped past the chocked breath he held to keep it in, and he laid stretched on the ground, writhing. He had been hurt worse before, much worse, but somehow this pain felt like all the other times were no match compared to it. He let out another choked cough and opened his stinging eyes.  
><em>

"_Beshimi, sit up and look at me," Okashira jabbed his forehead with the cane, "Or never look me in the face again."_

_He sat up obediently, but let his head remain bent toward the ground, unable to look the Okashira in the face. The man named Makamachi was a very merciful person, but anger him, as he had foolishly done, and he was an ogre to be feared. Not only that, but shame also met his stomach in bucketfuls. How could he possibly look up?  
><em>

_He had no strength in his neck, and his head was held heavily up. He was despicable. He failed the Oniwaban group in the most horrible way...He was a traitor. _

"_So be it," Okashira's voice almost sounded sad, before it hardened, "Hannya! Aoshi! Hold his arms!"_

_He was lifted off his feet again and someone to his left squeezed his arm, but not hard, almost sympathizing. He looked out the corner of his stinging eyes and saw Aoshi, cold face, beside him._

_Again, the punishment was swift but the pain was more intense as Okashira was infuriated and had far more power than he needed to waste behind his strokes.  
><em>

"_Hhk!" His chest was bleeding, and more blood splattered onto the ground from the swats delivered from the Okashira. His heart ached, from the torture of knowing the girl he learned to trust betrayed him, and that he foolishly betrayed his family as a result of his blindness. His collar bone hurt, his rib cage hurt, his stomach hurt, and his entire torso felt on fire. The pain was hard to bear, but he couldn't do anything to protest it, for only he brought it upon himself in the end. _

_Suddenly, Hannya let go of his arm, and gasped a bit,"L-leader!"_

_The punishment stopped mid-swing, "Hannya, what is it? You know the law as well as anyone."_

_He felt his heartbeat in his ears again, and then licked the corner of his mouth, the taste of salt meeting his taste-buds._

"_Uhhnn," He groaned as he felt his chest cavity quiver with a shallow breath, his uniform soaking in a darker liquid. _

"_You," The Okashira threw the cane to the side, losing the patience to deal with him any longer when Hannya, for a moment, diverted his attentions, "You are staining the Oniwabanshu, Beshimi."_

"_Okashira!" Okina cried out, his eyes wide, "He's a boy…"_

"_None the less," Okashira sighed in a shaking breath, "This boy has committed a crime more horrible than any of the grown men of the Oniwaban. Go, Okina, and see if our comrades still live, but do not be surprised to not see a living soul there."_

_Okina's voice dropped and he looked at the ground sideways, "Y-yes ,Okashira."_

"_I-I'm sorry," Beshimi croaked and felt Aoshi's grip tighten on his arm, he hadn't let go of him yet. _

"_Take him, Aoshi," Okashira sighed again and flicked his arm, "And give him the clothes he was found in. He is no longer Oniwaban."_

"_NO!" For the first time, Beshimi looked up, his weak body shaking with sadness, "Please, Okashira! Forgive me! I didn't mean to-!"_

"_You helped an enemy of the Oniwaban escape! You assisted in stalling so she could do so! You leaked information that led to the death of ten perfectly fine and loyal Oniwabanshu ninjas and you don't even lift you're face to stare bravely at your fate!" Okashira roared at his feeble form and then coughed horribly. After rubbing his chest he looked down at him , "The things you've done are enough to earn you the death penalty but it seems-"_

_Beshimi gulped and followed the Okashira's gaze to Aoshi's stoney face, "-There are those who think you should be spared."_

_Aoshi bowed, his waist bent at a ninety-degree angle, and Beshimi felt his strong grip hold his arm tighter, "Okashira, I think he would be useful."_

_ Okashira swallowed phlegm that gathered his throat, and then stood straighter, "Have you gone mad, Aoshi? You are a protégée to be sure, and you have learned at a incredible pace-"_

"_As this one has," Aoshi hoisted Beshimi a little bit higher, "I have watched him. He hasn't been training since he could walk like the rest of us, and this boy has already caught up with our basic and secret techniques in every style of-"_

"_A prime example of mediocrity, all of it." Okashira scoffed._

"_But learned none the less." Aoshi started again before loosening his fist and, with no fear in his voice, spoke directly to the Leader, "Okashira-sama, spare his life because it is a waste to rid of someone so useful."_

_Beshimi's eyes burned and thick tears flowed down his cheeks in rivers. Aoshi Shinomori, a protegee and a martial arts genius. Not only was the boy a bit younger than himself, but was faster, more intelligent and far superior. Still, he did not boast nor waste his time in showing off the excessive skill he had. Beshimi, in a futile attempt to become a more useful person, tried to train as hard as he could so that, one day, he can be at least nearly as good as Shinomori was. And here, now, in his defense, Aoshi was holding him up and speaking for him. _

"_Useful you say?" Okashira chuckled amusingly, "Aoshi, you are aware that the boy betrayed us?"_

"_I'll take responsibility if you like," Shinomori lowered him to the ground, then let him go, before dropping to own his knees before the Okashira, his arms before him as his head touched the ground, "If I may ask a favor, Okashira?"_

_Okashira blinked,"Speak."  
><em>

_"I want him to be my close comrade."_

"_Eh?" Okashira sniffed, "Is Hannya not enough for you? That boy was a favor on my part already, Aoshi."_

"_I ask for another favor from you honored Leader," Aoshi aimed in emotionless green eyes upward, the moon reflecting in them. "This boy as my comrade, and I promise you, he will not fail under my charge." _

"_Hnn…" Okashira tilted his body, pupils moving a bit in his deep thinking. _

_"Okashira, this boy will be a proper ninja or he will die trying to do so," Aoshi looked over at Beshimi who weakly nodded in agreeance, "He will not fail the Oniwaban again."  
><em>

"_Full responsibility," Okashira frowned, decidedly, "Is yours Aoshi Shinomori, but know this-"_

_Beshimi quailed under the even stare the leader directed at him._

"_He is to not ever be allowed to wear our uniform again." He finished, turned and left the yard. _

_In the silence that followed, Aoshi lifted Beshimi up onto his shaking knees and lead him back into the house, where kind Omasu hurriedly ran to fetch a medicine box as Aoshi ordered._

_Three years later, Aoshi became Okashira upon the old Leader's death. And though, before then, Beshimi had failed on missions, the Okashira never found out about them as Hannya and Aoshi, and later even Hyottoko and Shikijou as he joined, helped him where he blundered. Surely the Leader knew but he never said anything, even as Hannya scolded him at the dinner table, where he still ate at, and he would hide behind his rice bowl as the Leader glanced at him questioningly._

_Upon Aoshi's ascension to the rank of Okashira, Leader of the Oniwabanshu, the fifteen year old stared down at his diminutive bowed seventeen year old face._

"_You are to help yourself now Beshimi, understand? No help from the rest of us. Keep up and be useful or do not call yourself Oniwabanshu." _

"_Yes," Beshimi loyally bent down to his knee and crossed his fist over his chest, the scars scrapping his long black glove, "I give you my word."_

"_Hear this," Aoshi pointed down at Beshimi, his voice raising so ever one could here him, and looked straight at the other Oniwaban stares, "This is our comrade now. He is Oniwabanshu. Anyone to doubt this-" His green eyes looked back down at him, "Will have to answer to me."  
><em>

_Omasu, Hyottoko, and Shikijou openly cheered and clapped her hands while Okina smiled approvingly. Even Okon and Hannya seemed pleased with this. Kurojo and Shirojo jumped into the air and suggested a party, which Okina agreed for, and they ran away to quickly prepare for it._

"_Thank you," Beshimi rasped as he wiped at his eyes, stinging with grateful tears. _

"_Out of respect for the old leader," Aoshi said softly, "Still do not wear our uniform.**"**_

* * *

><p>Beshimi opened his eyes, shaking and slightly surprised to see the gray of dawn. He curled his fingers into the dirt underneath him and rose achingly, vomit dried to the corner of his lips and a foul taste covering his entire tongue and mouth.<p>

The poison still ran through his veins, his vision still blurry and his muscles shivering with each stumbling step he took toward the front gate of the mansion. _Fucking bitch, you tricked_ me! He mentally yelled to the fox so far away from him now,_ This was all a little game to you and I fell for it! Well, bitch, I can play too!_

"Shikijou!" Beshimi called, tripping on the gravel path as he limped along, "She got away! Megumi Takani escaped!

Two guards, who were guarding the hallway of the mansion she occupied, was immediately sent for and ordered to chase after her in a moment of screaming confusion. Beshimi stood shaking beside the giagantic gate-keeper, and watched as the two _Yakuza _guards raced down the path toward Tokyo. Questions flew in all directions, some accusing, most defensive, and all completely bewildered.

The large muscled man, calm in the mad chaos that was rushing around them, turned to look at the short one with concern, "Are you alright?"

"Just fine, I can manage," Beshimi closed his eyes to brace himself before he turned on his heel and continued up the path past Shikijou, towards the mansion.

Shikijou reached out to his retreating back, "Hey, where are you going?"

"Someone must inform Leader."

It took a while with his shaking legs to find Okashira, and when he did, Beshimi could sense Hannya, surely wondering where he and the fox were at, lurking nearby. For some reason, he had yet to show himself to Leader, and probably for the same reason that Beshimi sunk his head into his shoulders for. Kanryu was with Leader, and turned to look at his arrival with an air of prideful arrogance.

"O-Okashira." Beshimi heavily sucked in air, his shoulders rising with each difficult breath. Aoshi turned from Kanryu and looked at him, a flash of emotion spreading over his face when he saw his state before it quickly disappeared into his usual stoic expression.

"Beshimi? What is it?" Aoshi narrowed his eyes a bit.

"The-the opium woman…" Beshimi's eyes darted to the business man, then back to his leader.

"Whatever it is," Kanryu, puffing on his thin cigar, smiled the slimy smile he had, "You can say it in front of me."

"Sh-she escaped." Beshimi lowered his eyes to the floor tiles as Kanryu shouted at him in outrage, "What!?"

He was ranting and raving, asking him about how this happened and demanding the answers to his rapidly fired questions when Aoshi lifted his hand up to silence him.

"Beshimi," Aoshi interrupted the raging entrepreneur, "Explain."

The demon swallowed, eyes peeking at Kanryu, before he bowed his head low and murmured, "Forgive me Okashira...I-I don't know..."

"Go get her back Beshimi, and with no assistance...and no mistakes."

By Aoshi's tone of voice, Beshimi had the impression that he somehow knew everything. Or at least, Leader guessed as close to the truth as was possible. Beshimi lowered his head even more, wondering how the Okashira could find forgiveness and never-ending patience for his foolishness, before his teeth clenched tightly together with a sqeak and he answered with a low, contemptuous growl.

"I will not fail the Oniwaban group again. I'll return with the woman."

* * *

><p><strong>End chapter eight...<strong>

**Next time!/ Megumi is cornered and she does the only thing that can protect her. Lie.**


	9. Chapter 9: What a Cunning Little Fox

_**A/N: And here is where it overlaps with the anime :D**_

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><p><strong>In this chapter: She couldn't escape from them could she? Megumi, in a moment of quick thinking, is rescued by two strangers. But, how long will these two strangers be willing to protect her against the influence of Kanryu and the might of the Oniwabanshu?<br>**

* * *

><p>"Chapter 9: What a Cunning Little Fox"<p>

* * *

><p><em>hah, hah, hah<em>

Megumi ran, her sandals scrapping the dirt between the Tokyo stall lined streets, as two Yakuza members, part of Kanryu's personal army, closed in behind her. Her breath was coming in short, stinging bursts, and beads of sweat began to slide down her face from her brow as she desperately tried everything to be free of them. She turned corners, zigzagged in the alleys, and weaved through all the large crowds. She tried every possible way available to her to loose them, but they always caught sight of her soon after she thought she was safe, and the chase continued with no proper rest for her.

After she couldn't possibly run anymore, she became desperate. She could not go back there again!

Megumi, taking one last leap of faith to elude capture, opened a door to a random building with noise coming from within. The occupants stopped their chatter and their eyes stared questioningly at her as she looked over them all. Her last hope relied on what she may or not find there, and she didn't even no what she was looking for. Still, as if the god's favored her, she spotted a sword at a short, red-haired man's side, and immediately knew what she must do. Her acting skills once again came from within her at full force.

Desperately, she flew towards him, her shoes flying off at the door, "Please, you got to help me!"

* * *

><p>No matter where she turned, he was there, chasing her from roof to roof. Jumping over the alleys and barely skimming his feet against the roof tiles as he dashed over them. When she slammed the door open of a building. He slipped into the rafters and moved a tile aside, his feline-like eyes watching her fly towards a short, red-headed man and wrap her long arms around his neck.<p>

"Nnaaa?" The man's eyes grew like saucers as she breathlessly panted.

"Some awful men have been chasing me around the city," She begged deeply, "Please…help me."

"Huhn?" The stranger looked down at her long black hair and then his violet eyes moved to the doorway as the Yakuza finally caught up with the her.

"We got you now!"

"There's no where to run, so give up!"

She turned and looked at them, her brown eyes quivering. What a wonderful actress. Of course, she was a good enough performer to fool him!

"Looks like we have some rude guests here," A man, his brown messy head bent down, spoke in a young and slightly annoyed voice, "What's the big idea?"

"Shut up! We're only here for the broad! " The biggest guard shouted, and with his sword drawn from the chase stepped closer to the young man and Megumi Takani, "You keep out of it."

Beshimi blinked as Megumi, like a frightened rabbit, gasped, "No!"

The brown haired youth stood up, his hair looking like a tail end of a rooster now his head was lifted, and without warning, threw his bare fist into the Yakuza's face. Still holding his fist in a tight ball, he growled, "I'm already in a bad mood today. You better watch what you say to me, losers."

The hefty guard was held by his armpits by the smaller one and the skinny one piped up as the big one regained his senses, "Do you have any idea who you're even talking to? You're not going to get away with this! You're messing with the personal body guards of Kanryu Takeda!"

"I told you to watch your mouth!" The bird-head threw a clay bowl at the thin one's face who fell back to the ground, taking the big guy with him.

"The personal bodyguards of Kanryu Takeda," One squinted eyed man wearing a blue_ yukata_ said in slight worry as another man voiced his thoughts, "I definitely wouldn't want to be enemies with that guy."

The red haired man stood, taking Megumi by the arm and helped her to her feet. His long pony-tail trailed down his back, and Beshimi's eyes were drawn to an x shaped scar donning his left cheek. The red-haired shorty asked confusedly, "Kanryu Takeda?"

Upon hearing the name of the pig living in the mansion, Beshimi jumped down noiselessly and settled himself comfortably on the floor, sticking his hands in his sleeves and getting a good view of the 'show.' He sniggered internally to himself, knowing that none of them were aware of his presence yet. He waited, for fun, for them to perhaps, maybe, notice him at all. He wasn't often patient but in situations like this he loved the wait, it made the surprise all the more pleasing after all.

He enjoyed waiting for Megumi in her room, when she would almost always in the first week's be surprised to find him there even though the door was locked. How ironic now that he was waiting again, only for the right moment to bring her down to her fate instead of time of camaraderie.

The bird-head turned slightly toward the scarred-cheek man, answering him. They seemed to be friends of sorts, "He's a young entrepreneur, pretty well known underground. He's got a few dozen guys working for him and he's rumored to be involved in pretty bad business. A real shady guy."

Beshimi frowned, _Well, that's the gist of it in any case._

"You," The brown haired man turned to Megumi, "How are you related to him?"

"I honestly don't know anything about this believe me." She spoke so innocently, perfect constructed deception spilling from her round red painted lips.

In a scratchy voice, he finally spoke up, and he couldn't resist laughing at the end either,"It isn't nice to lie, Megumi Takani._ Ehh, heh, heh, heh, heh_."

They all turned, startled at his 'sudden' arrival, "Wha-? When'd he get there?"

Finishing his laugh, he kept his large eyes closed. With his mind's eye he addressed Megumi, his 'once friend' and amusedly called out her bluff, "Trying to buy a little time by playing the role of a damsel in distress; what a cunning little fox!"

His shoulders shook with his snicker that tailed his words, and Beshimi added, "But you forget-" He lifted his head and eyelids to expose his slit pupils, his demon eyes, to the strangers, "We're keeping a close eye on you, sweetheart!" He snorted and again laughed at her face, a face of being caught red handed.

If she wanted to play a game, then he would play. And he would win this time.

Up to that point she had stared at him with her beautiful brown eyes, them now hardening in his direction, and she flipped her hand through the black silky strands of hair over her shoulder, huffing. Megumi put her hands on her hips and took steps towards him, still defiantly staring at him.

"Go back to Kanryu and tell him, that now matter what he tries to do to me-," Takani angrily angled her hips and lifted her chin proudly, "I'll do everything I can to run away from him again!"

"Huh?" The red-head confusedly lifted his head over from behind her tall womanly shoulder, looking at him.

_Oh, no doubt, fox, you already proved that,_ Beshimi smiled wider and showed his teeth at her, cackling again before taking a raspy breath, "You really are a little cutie."

He slipped his gloved hand from his sleeve and lowered it slowly, tacks hidden in his browned palm, "You actually think you can get away from us!" His voice rose at the end of his sentence, and the last syllable of his statement was drawn out in a hiss as his long thumb flicked at the wooden tacks in his palm. The darts flew past Megumi's startled face, her black hair disrupted and billowing behind her as they zoomed past, and landed into the shoulders of the unfortunate men behind her.

"Kenji, Tomo!" The rooster-head caught one friend in his arms, while Megumi looked at Beshimi's face, truly scared.

Beshimi found some sick satisfaction out of her frightened expression, her frame shaking slightly, her eyes wide, and her pretty little mouth gaping in frozen, breathless, fear. It actually brought him a bit of horrible joy.

_She brought it upon herself by using people like puppets! _His face twitched and he narrowed his eyes a bit, _Even if I find a sinful enjoyment out of revenge and am damned to a worse hell because of it, so what. All the same, since I'm going there one way or another anyways- _

He smiled again, the contempt gone from his expression and plastered back with a smirk

He closed his hand and brought out two tacks and mounted them in the calloused stretch of sinewy muscle between his thumb and forefinger. Addressing Megumi with a low growl, he said, "Next time, it won't just be a warning…It will be a punishment!"

She looked at him, shaking in her ghost pale skin and he let the tacks fly from his hand.

The red head jumped in front of her and tapped the _tatami_ mat with the tips of his fingers, forcing them to bend upwards. The two tacks hit the mat with dual *tid, tid* sounds. Beshimi's face screwed sideways at the sudden and unexpected defensive maneuver from the earlier silly and bewildered man.

The tatami mat lowered to show the red head's face, sharp and intense, like Leader's. Sweat that already dotted his forehead from the poison turned cold, and yet he felt even hotter as the stare bore into him. He heaved a rough breath and his face twitched, "Huhn?"

The scarred-cheek man spoke in a voice smoother and more low voiced than his earlier confused mumblings, "I do not understand the situation well," He said carefully, "But I certainly can't stand by and watch others hurt people for fun."

Megumi stared at her white palm in amazement, unhurt as the stranger protected her.

_Fun? You think this is for fun! Don't dare get in the way of my revenge! Even if it's just getting her legs so she can't run, don't stop me! _Beshmi felt his temple throb with his trembling rage. He stood up and, sweat dappling his face, stretched out his thin, straight neck and snarled at the red head, "I don't know who you are but I'll get you with the next- Hmnnh?"

"You creep! You won't get away with that!" The rooster-head flew at him with a raised fist, apparently finally getting over the fact that one of his friends had a tack sticking out of his shoulder.

Beshmi blinked, tensing his arm to aim the mounted tack in his hand at the new presented target when the sound of a tatami mat thumping against the ground made him turn his head. The red head, a fist holding a sword tight against his body, dashed at him with a ferocious look, causing a gasp to escape from in between his clenched teeth, "Hah!"

The two met in front of him and together charged at his face. His eyes quivered as he tried to force them to focus, his arm holding his gloved hand steady from its shaking. He hadn't realized the poison's effects bothered him that much until the moment where the fist and sword were right in front of his pointed nose, he noticing too late how it hindered his reflexes drastically.

He only had enough time to suck in a breath before the two fists met his face. Bare knuckles met squarely into his chin and teeth, while the metal _tsubasa_ crashed into the bridge of his nose. A chip of his tooth fell to the ground, and his nose cracked loudly as he flew back with a loud cry.

The next thing Beshimi knew he felt paper and thin wood break against his back as he flew across the alley and through the neighboring building's paper window. His head smacked the floor in the next building and in a flash of blinding light, he fell unconscious to remember nothing more until he would wake much, much, later...

Megumi stared at the distinct Beshimi imprint in the rice paper across the alley. She then let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the comical outstretched body cut-out his flight made in the paper window next door. _No longer friends and I can still laugh at your expense. Thank the gods, you are not as strong as you let yourself believe Beshimi..._

* * *

><p>The red headed stranger introduced himself as Kenshin, and was kind enough to offer her further help and take her to a safe place: The Kamiya Dojo.<p>

"We're back!" Kenshin cheerfully announced their arrival as soon as they entered the compound.

A, rather plain, black pony-tailed girl in boy's clothes came out with a goofy smile on her face, "Kenshin! Welcome- Huh?" Her triangle pulled mouth turned into a big circle as she stared at Megumi and Kenshin rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Hi, I'm sorry we're so late," Kenshin said as the plain girl's eyes journeyed to Megumi's face, who was busy looking around the yard.

"This look's like a pretty run-down place." Megumi stated flatly, thinking to herself, _As wonderful as Sir Ken made it seem, I would expect something more. It's actually rather shabby. _"Is it a dojo?"

"Who's that supposed to be?" The plain girl pointed to Megumi, her tone insulted and her eyes squinted towards Kenshin.

Sir Ken turned to her and kindly acquainted her with the plain little girl, "Let me introduce you to Miss Megumi Takani. She was being chased by several rude fellows."

Megumi smiled and leaned into the Kenshin's shoulder, "But Sir Ken so bravely saved me from them." Seeing the angry face on the girl's face she went on to lay her head against the back of his and closed her eyes.

That blew some invisible fuse and the plain girl twitched visible, her hands tight fists against the side of her hips. _Sir Ken?! _Was written all over her face. _  
><em>

A boy that Megumi hadn't even realized was there before, with arms bent behind his spiky black head lazily, spoke up for the first time, "So, to make a long story short, I guess he put the moves on the woman he saved."

A smirk opened up on his tanned face and then laughed at Kenshin, "Heh ha! I guess I can't leave you alone, can I?"

The plain girl got closer to Kenshin's face menacingly, seething, as Sir Ken put his hands up defensively and, just as happily, searched for his careful words, "No I-uh, that's really not the case here."

"Then what's your excuse?" The plain girl demanded with boiling over wrath practically seeping from her ears.

Megumi smiled all the more as she leaned into Sir Ken again, a blush forming on her face, as well as Sir Kenshin's, "As I was sayin-" was cut drastically short. "Yah?"

"Sir Ken was wonderfully heroic when he saved me," Megumi rubbed his scarred cheek and flushed. This much was actually true, though she put up an act to make the girl more angry for her own cruel delight.

"Right," The girl mouthed and sent her fist flying into his cheek. After a comical "Ahh?", she went on to pummel him, screaming like a maniac, "How could you do something like that? I hate you! You're a miscreant! I lost all faith in you! Kenshin! You're a jerk!" Somehow during the beating, she grabbed a stick of sorts and was bashing it against his skull repeatedly before he, with swirling eyes, fell down to the stone path in front of Megumi.

Gripping the front of her shirt Megumi blurted out with shock spread eyes, "Why I never! What a violent girl."

She knelt down and picked up the scuffed up Kenshin, "Are you alright, Sir Ken?"

"Now just a minute you! What exactly is your relationship to Kenshin, anyway?"

Megumi turned her face to the violent tom-boy and innocently told her, "Why, I hope that Sir Ken is going to be the man who'll protect me of course!" Then she added with less innocence, "What's _your_ relationship with him?"

Her face turned into the same dumb, circle mouth, expression she had when she found Megumi, and much more developed form standing by the swordsman when they first arrived, "Our. Relationship?"

Megumi smiled at her idiocy, "Well I'm **positive** you can't be his lover. I mean a sweaty little girl couldn't possibly what a man like Sir Ken would look for in a woman." She lifted her sleeve to her red lips and laughed mockingly and emphasized each huff of air.

The boy grabbed the tom-boy's waist as she came at her with the stick, screaming at the top of her lungs, "We'll excuse me for being a sweaty little girl! Wanna make something out of it!?"

"Calm down Kaoru!" The boy tried to sedate her with his words, and clearly struggled to hold her back.

The rooster-head from earlier, apparently named 'Sano', looked over at the girl, 'Kaoru' from over his shoulder, "You shouldn't play around with her mind so much. This little girl is actually pretty simple-minded." Then he turned his head to Megumi, Kaoru huffing angrily, "Unlike, some woman who are a bit more cunning."

Kenshin sat up serious-face, and Megumi wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him back to her body, his face returning to his more odd-ball self, "But, you do prefer me over that violent girl over there don't you, Sir Ken?"

She then leaned her breasts into the back of his head more, "Hmm?"

The boy blushed and Kaoru, her face popping with veins, covered his eyes as she growled, "Errrrrrrrrr-hrrr!"

Like an volcano, she exploded, "KEEENNNNSHHHHIN!"

* * *

><p><strong>End of Chapter nine...<strong>

**Next Chapter/The fight with Hyottoko!  
><strong>


	10. Chapter 10: Betrayal Fire Poison

_**A/N: Just citing the anime again, but of course added thoughts and new 'scenes' NOT in the anime like in the previous chapter. :D Naturally, it's all from Beshimi's and Megumi's POV…The fight with Hyottoko! NOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!**_

* * *

><p><strong>In this chapter: The fox had betrayed him, and he failed again… now it's time to redeem himself. Or at least, that's what he wants to do, but Hannya has a better idea that will ensure that they won't fail.<br>**

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: "Betrayal. Fire. Poison."<p>

* * *

><p>Beshimi bowed his head, a white square bandage covering the broken bone in his nose, as he crouched on his haunches in the shadows of Kanryu's patio. His was knee lifted, with his arm bent over it, and his gloved hand rested at his side as his body pointed toward the light that came out from the house in a ghostly bar.<p>

Below him in the front yard, two yakuza guards tied together begged for their lives, promising to do better next time, as one of their 'once' comrades lifted a _katana_ over his head with no mercy. A evil smile even spread over his lips before the man drew his arm taunt then let it fall upon them.

Their blood-curdling screams sent a wave of cold shivers down his arms. Somewhere to the side of him, though he dare not move from his kneeling position, in the light of the house illuminating the patio for Kanryu's late supper, the pig spoke.

"I guess it's just my nature as an entrepreneur," He took a bite of his expensive meat and put his fork and knife beside his plate, looking out of the corner of his eyes at the Okashira standing stiffly beside him, "I don't feel comfortable unless I immediately dispose of things that are _useless_. I think you're much more tolerant in that respect, aren't you Leader?"

Beshimi let out a breath between his clenched teeth and dropped his head lower in his shame. The fox got away from him. He failed the Oniwaban group. The blood curdling cries from moments before could've easily been mixed with his own. Or maybe it would've already echoed away by now. Yes, it could easily be said that Hannya was loyal enough to do anything that Leader ordered, they all were, and for his failure surely punishment would come this time around. He failed, after the Okashira told him specifically not to, and all because he allowed himself to be tricked by a mere woman. It was the same from when Aoshi saved him from the worst punishment years before; banishment from the only thing that he ever treasured.

Death would be a more welcomed punishment at this point. Kanryu already made it clear that execution would please him more.

Aoshi Shinomori spoke with a firm tone as Takeda lifted his napkin to his pointed face, "I am the leader of the group that Beshimi and the others belong to. I won't allow you to interfere in private matters."

For some reason, the firm tone that brought tears to his eyes twice before did nothing now, but make his chest feel hollow. He wasn't worthy of it this time. Such a simple task it was to fetch Megumi back, and yet he failed.

Kanryu snorted into his napkin and wiped his mouth, "I fully understand. In any case, I have no complaints as long as Megumi is returned to me."

Across the bar of light, Hannya stood and awaited Okashira to give him permission to speak, his long shadow ominously stretching out towards Beshimi.

"Hannya!" Aoshi called out to his shrouded form, "Where is Megumi Takani?"

He bowed, his arm folded over his middle, "She is in a dojo downtown."

"Alright," Aoshi looked sternly in the spy's direction, "Then you and Hyottoko will go and help Beshimi to complete this task."

Hannya lifted his head to answer him, "Yes sir," before slinking away into the night.

A brief silence past before Aoshi slightly moved his eyes to Beshimi, who still kneeled, waiting to be dismissed, "All right, Beshimi? I won't allow anymore mistakes."

Beshimi bowed his head, his hand forming a fist to his chest, "I will engrave that directive into my heart."

Aoshi nodded his leave and Beshimi backed off into the deeper darkness, his pants rustling slightly as he crawled away.

Away in the light, he heard Kanryu speak to Okashira one last time, his voice fading as he moved farther and farther away from him and his Leader, "Please bring her back to me safely, Leader. Megumi is my hen that lays the golden eggs. I simply cannot let her go under any circumstances."

One. Last. Chance. No more mistakes or he'd cut out his very heart for it.

* * *

><p>It was time to reveal the truth about her situation. It was time to speak up and tell Sir Ken what he was up against…<p>

She took a deep breath, leaned forward, and began, "Kanryu has about sixty bodyguards, but the worst of them all is the one known as 'Leader.'"

Kenshin calmly looked at her despite the numbers mention, and asked with interest lining his voice, "Leader?"

"A former spy, different than his personal bodyguards. He's a genius that right before the Meiji Revolution became the head of the Oniwaban group, Protectors of the Edo Castle, at the age of fifteen: Aoshi Shinomori." Megumi looked at Kenshin with a growing feeling in her breast, "But as long as you're with me, Sir Ken, I'd feel safe even if every single one of those body guards attacked us at once this very minute!"

She closed her eyes and laughed pleasantly.

Kenshin threw a hand behind his head, much like Beshimi did when he felt flustered, "I certainly hope that doesn't happen though!"

Megumi looked down solemnly at the floor, the tatami mats almost moving towards her. Kenshin was an impressive man to stop Beshimi's attacks with just a tatami mat, but still, _if the rest Oniwaban group gets involved, then even **he** won't be able to stop him. I can't stay here much longer-_

Kenshin's voice interrupted her thoughts, "So Miss Megumi, would you mind telling me why you run away from Kanryu?"

She turned her head a blankly stared at the wall away from him as he finished, "And why is Kanryu so obsessed with chasing you?" He then noticed her lack of attention and added, "You should listen when other people are talking to you."

She looked back at him and, with slightly pursed lips, childishly defied answering his questions, "I don't want to tell you. Only thoughtless men try to pry into a woman's past."

He sighed and let his head fall to his shoulders, "That's all I get when it comes to the heart of the matter."

She tilted her head and smiled, chuckling under her breath.

* * *

><p>"Beshimi," Hannya stretched his long legs in front of him to catch a limb under his foot, "What in all the deities' names is the matter with you?"<p>

"Nothing!" He jerked forward and jumped through the tree limbs that Megumi and himself sat under without so much as looking at it, "Keep up with me!"

"You know that not even the Okashira himself could do that at your top speed! **You** slow down!" Hannya shouted right before he crashed down into the tree limb, very unlike himself.

As it rattled noisily, he cursed at it, and jumped again as he tried to increase his speed to keep up. It wasn't his habit to be sloppy, but the imp in front of him was making him agitated with his inconsideration. Beshimi should know already that not even he could keep up with his short but quick legs. Especially since it was the only thing that saved him sometimes, including now. If he could catch up with him, Hannya would have already punched the back of his head despite the fact he had his concealed metal gauntlets on under his gloves.

Hannya growled when Beshimi seemed to not hear his earlier demand, "We can't get anywhere if you are already leaving us behind!"

"Ah!" Hyottoko agreed as he jogged with heaving breaths on the ground below, "Slow down, Shorty!"

"Why aren't you guys keeping up with me?!" Beshimi leaped into the next set of tree branches increasing his speed, "Come-!"

"BESHIMI!" Hannya's commanding voice made him finally listen. Beshimi grabbed a tree limb in his hand to stop himself short, and the force swung back towards the tree where his sandaled-feet caught a lower branch to perch high in the air.

"What?" Beshimi huffed in a rough raspy snap, adrenaline built up in his chest and his gloved arm, his fingers twitching.

"Think rationally," Hannya took in a bite of breath, "I understand you're angry at being tricked, Beshimi, but don't let that undermine our efforts! You need to keep a level head or you will mess up once again and she will best you. Don't let that happen, Beshimi."

Beshimi gave a long, irritated, and growl that ended in a cry as he threw his fist into the bark of the grandfatherly tree he was crouched on, retracting away at the pain he felt, "Don't you think I know that!?" He snarled and licked the scrapes, eyes quivering in his effort to calm himself.

The demon mask offered no sympathy, "Beshimi, you observe."

"What!?" Beshimi closed his scraped fist, "You can't say-No! **I **have to be the one to bring the fox back!"

Hannya shook his head, "No, Okashira has asked me to lead and I will assign you to what position I think is wise to get this mission completed. You are to observe, Hyottoko will attack and I will grab Megumi Takani at the right moment. You **will** follow the plan, Beshimi."

Hyottoko nodded obediently, his deep toadly voice adding,"_Aa_, Hannya I know I will."

"Rrrr! Fine!" Beshimi crossed his arms tightly, "But I still want to see that little vixen quake beneath me!"

"Ha, ha, ha," Hyottoko smiled and Beshimi blushed at the slow realization at what the giant was laughing at.

Beshimi's small shoulders shook, "Ooooh! You idiot! That's not what I meant!"

Hannya seemed to get a rare enjoyment out of it as well, "Kanryu did say he didn't have any qualms as long as Megumi was brought back. Who's to say you can't do something along the way if you want, Beshimi?"

"You're sick!" Beshimi gagged and his entire face reddened more. "Who said I wanted to do anything of that nature?!"

Hannya looked in a random direction away from the diminutive nin and scoffed, "I wasn't the one who said I wanted the woman, Beshimi." Before he jumped through the air to the next set of trees, laughing in an evil and low-set chuckle. Hyottoko, also still laughing, started to run towards Tokyo again.

Beshimi unclenched his tightly held teeth to shout after them, "I never said I did either!"

* * *

><p>All night, Sano and the others watched for any sign of the Oniwabanshu ninjas. Late into the night, Kenshin opened the door from the room Megumi and he were talking in and addressed his friend first, "Sano, have you seen anything suspicious, yet?"<p>

"Nope, nothing yet," Came his gruff yet lazy reply.

"Considering that our opponents have the Oniwaban group on their side; it is safe to assume that they know where Miss Megumi is. It's important that we don't let our guard down."

Sano leaned to the side and looked up to the walkway, "The Oniwaban group?"

Kaoru turned to Sano and asked, "They're ninjas right?"

No answer came as the rooster-headed teen lowered his head and stared at Megumi through the open door.

_What is he looking at?_ Megumi closed her mouth that she found was slightly open, and kneeled to sit on the floor inside as Kenshin took a step out and into his straw sandals, "I'd hope not to be a bother to you, Miss Kaoru. All things considered, there might be an ugly incident or two before this is over I'm afraid." He took a firm step forward and seriously continued, "But I will make sure to keep you safe from harm, Miss Kaoru."

"Kenshin." Kaoru's eyes shimmered slightly with the twinkling stars.

A boyish laugh interrupted any other sentiments as it spoke from an unseen location, " I heard that Kenshin!"

Sir Ken's legs were grasped by his ankles and he fell forward, arms flailing with a "Eh? Yah? Yaah? Yah?"

"So, something's gonna be going on?!"

"Yahiko?" Kaoru blinked and stared underneath the walkway.

As if on cue, Kenshin finally hit the dirt with a cloud of dust. 'Yahiko' crawled out from underneath the wooden walkway and put a fist in the air, "Were you going to try and leave me out of it? I don't think so! I'm a member of Kenshin's group too, I'll have you know!"

Megumi blinked at his proud stance. It was the same tanned face and spiky black haired boy that greeted them at the gate. Apparently he also lived at the Kamiya Dojo, or at least spent most of his time here.

"One of Kenshin's group?" Sano, now sitting on a rock casually, lazily asked, "What do you mean?"

'Yahiko' zoomed to face him, and once again had a fist raised as he happily screamed into the bird-head's face, "Ha! They can bring bows and arrows, and knives, and even guns with them; Just let me at those creeps! I, Yahiko Myojin, will personally defeat them all!"

Sano's foot pointed into the boy's forehead and pushed him back slightly, "You're pretty arrogant for a kid, you know that?"

Yahiko bent back and instantly started to yell, "What'd you call me? I'll get you for that!" The boy snapped back and pounced onto Sano's head and took a mouthful of his hair, munching on his scalp, while growling and snarling. Sano, unfazed, sat like he did earlier and didn't even bend with the added weight of the boy on his shoulders.

Kaoru looked at the comical set-up on Sano's head and chided Yahiko.

Kenshin picked himself off of the ground and easily expressed his worries, "Hoo boy, if they're fighting amongst themselves all ready, Kenshin's group is in for a lot of problems!" Suddenly sensing something in the wind, his silly, peaceful face disappeared behind a tight one, "Hmm?"

Sano brushed Yahiko off of his head and looked at the direction of Kenshin's gaze in time to see a wall explode into rubble.

Megumi couldn't help but gasp and rise to her feet as the others ran to the hole bravely, their footsteps echoing in the silent night, aside the rock plummeting back to the earth. _They're here!_

Before the dust settled, Hyottoko grabbed the edge of the ruined wall and took a large step inside, "Just hand Megumi over to us quietly. If you do I promise to take it easy on you guys!"

Megumi had known the man long enough to come across what he could do. Since he was not an oniwaban ninja for much of his life, though he had much pride as any Oniwaban member, he was not so tight-lipped or reluctant to show what it was that he was capable of doing. And he knew what he could do was dangerous, and effective, and that made him very conceited. He was known to jump into any fight, often times with Beshimi who had a quick temper and often forgot their size differences, and he always proved to be more stronger, and not just in strength, than the other.

Kenshin leaned forward and evenly spoke to the giant, "I take it you're one of the Oniwaban group."

"Well yes, indeedy do." Hyottoko smiled, his already overblown pride building even more as he was recognized, "I'm Hyottoko of the Oniwaban group! So, which one of you are going to fight me? Or do you want to take me on together?"

"He's huge!" Yahiko exclaimed as he gaped at the impossible mass of the ninja.

"Heh," Sano calmly looked at the warrior, his fists at his side, "So we got a big guy who likes to talk big too. Kenshin, let me try this guy on for size."

"Sano, this 'guy' is one of the Oniwaban group," Kenshin needlessly reminded him, "We can't use brute force."

"I don't care who he is! It's not like I want to protect that broad or anything, but I've never backed down from a fight and I'm not starting now!" Sano charged toward Hyottoko, grunting with his prepared muscles to attack.

"So you wanna go first?" Hyottoko gladly pulled back his fist and threw it downward. Sano steped to the side and like a bird flew upwards with his small fist in comparison to Hyottoko's massive size, punched his large fat belly. The fat jiggled and another punch was launched. Hyottoko's feet slid back mere centimeters, an impressive feat on Sano's side to be sure despite the small distance that Hyottoko was actually pushed back.

A cocky smile was already plastered on Sano's face, "You can be proud of your size all you want. But it's useless but if you can't hit me."

Hyottoko laughed in his throat and Sano realized at that moment it was a mistake to be so close to him as the giant wrapped his think arm around Sano's lanky body, bringing him in closer.

The ninja's flint teeth clicked together and flames burst forward and surrounded Sano in the orange heat.

"Sanosuke!" Yahiko cried out to him through the fire that still raged out from the Oniwaban's mouth. The sound of the boy was dampened as the fire roared, but then that as well died as Hyottoko closed his mouth, "Huhn?"

"That was a close one, you loser," Sano stood, shirt burned away from him, several feet away.

Hyottoko smiled, clearly amused , "Ha! Ha! Ha! I see you managed to escape my fire breath!" His small round pupils looked over the burns on his opponent's legs and bellowed, "But, you won't be able to dodge a second one in your condition!"

Sano's muscles pulled tight as the warriors stared at each other for the next attack.

Beshimi looked on from a tree in the Kamiya dojo yard and praised Hyottoko's fight, "Nothing less from our best fire magic user. Hyottoko is certainly living up to his name's sake."

He lifted his hand to the tree and wrapped his palm around the limb, continuing to talk to himself as he watched his friend battle for him below. "He can burn anything with his fire breath!." Another sadistic chuckle was added to the end of his words. He loved seeing his friend fight, it always caught the opponent by surprise, and they never lived to tell the tale afterwards.

Hyottoko took earthquake steps closer to Sano but a voice caught his attention from the side.

"You should know better than to play with fire."

"Huhn?" Hyottoko lifted himself higher before turning to look at the scarred-cheeked and red-headed warrior, "What'd you say!?" The giant nin roared.

The taunting continued as Kenshin drew his sword from the scabbard and held the blade in front of his body, "You can't even burn one hair on my head with little tricks like that."

Hyottoko growled like a bear, frowning, "We'll see about that after you're burned up!" A loud click and he turned the fire toward Kenshin with a practiced accuracy. Kenshin, with no fear to be found on his face, began to spin his blade and caught the flame with a vortex of air to protect his body.

"Do you really think you can stop it, just like that, you fool!" Hyottoko kept the flame going and then, his eyes wide and reflecting the fire-light, "We'll see who's playing with fire after this!"

Kenshin kept his defense, not even flinching as Yahiko worriedly called out.

Megumi watched the flames, the fire illuminating her face and the heat barely touching her front as the cool night touched her back. She turned to leave but was stopped by Kaoru's voice, "Where are you going?"

Megumi didn't even turn to look at her, and gladly informed her, "That man is different than Beshimi. There's no way he can win."

She was leaving now. She had watched long enough and though surely Hannya or Beshimi waited in the shadows ahead, and escape was therefore futile, Megumi still contented herself to leave. She didn't want to see the end of Sir Ken, even if the meeting of him was short, she had already grown feelings that she had never had for any other man...

"Kenshin's been fighting for your sake in case you haven't noticed." Kaoru said with a firm voice, her eyes locked on her red-headed warrior. "How can you just run away when he's doing all this, for _you_?"

Megumi stared ahead into the dim orange of the fading firelight and the shadows,_ One of the other Oniwaban is out there in the darkness, I'm sure of it. _"The Oniwaban group is a ruthless bunch who don't have a shred of remorse about killing other people. They don't show any mercy even to woman. You may end up being killed by them as well."

Kaoru didn't falter, "No matter how strong the enemy is, Kenshin will protect me always." Kaoru dipped her head and went on, "Kenshin's not the kind of man who'd break a promise to anyone."

_But what about death? You can't help me if you're dead._ The light started to die and the crackling of the fire started to become a few hard pops. She turned around wide eyed and gasped as no dying cry met her ears and the light flickered.

Kenshin continued to spin the blade until Hyottoko ran out of breath, his eyes growing even wider in shock.

Sir Ken flicked his sword, the flames disappearing into the air, "It's time to stop playing with fire!"

Hyottoko's chest rumbled as he growled again. He stared angrily down at the short man with red hair as Yahiko cheered. The Oniwaban fire-magic user shouldered off the barrel on his back and gripped it in the corner of his elbow.

"That man…" Megumi stared in awe. Despite his general friendly demeanor, Megumi knew that Hyottoko was not one to be reckoned with. Never had she seen anyone survive the fiery fury of the technique, excluding the Oniwaban, prepared for the attacks they were familiar with. Always the unfortunate men unfamiliar with Hyottoko were burned to blackened skin and pink fleshy bits sticking under the peeling layers of crusty burn. She had seen this once when a man foolishly trespassed and Hyottoko was on the 'guard' shift, and that was horrible enough to hear let alone see.

"I ain't through with you yet!" Hyottoko yelled and Kenshin readied himself. Sano called out to him, "Wait Kenshin."

"Sano?"

"Didn't I tell you to let me handle this guy?" Sano's face brightened with a confident smile, "I appreciate all the help. Sorry for troubling you but I'd like to give him another go."

The barrel crashed into the ground below and Hyottoko wiped his wide chin with his beefy forearm, "I've got more oil now."

"All right loser! Let's try this one more time!" Sano charged toward him, a reddening fist pulled back.

Hyottoko showed his gummy smile and then laughed deeply, "Nah, ha! I'll make a fire ball outta you this time!" He opened his mouth and sucked in a humongous gulp of air before clacking his artificial teeth together, roaring with the fire.

Beshimi smiled again, "What an intense fire breath. There's no way he can survive that!"

"Hmm?" Hyottoko watched the man dive into his breath and run towards him through it.

"What?" Beshimi hissed, his face falling. The red head mumbled something incoherent as the bird head punched into Hyottoko's open mouth, grabbing a handful of his stringy black hair that was piled on top of Hyottoko's head while he was at it.

Hyottoko twisted around, choking, then he reflexively punched Sano away from him with his giant fist. Sano fell back, the oil bag hidden in Hyottoko's gut coming with him, and the boy near the house called out to the warrior in the dirt.

Sano pulled the bag closer, "So this is how you did your little magic trick?"

"Huh?" Hyottoko stiffened and stared down at the bag, the only one he had.

"So what now?" Sano looked at him, a proud smile on his lips, "You're out of tricks, right?"

Hyottoko raised his fist and flew down to split the warrior's head open, "This fight isn't over yet-!"

The ninja was cut short as Sano smashed his foot into the other's face and jumped away as Hyottoko fell back unconscious. The ground rumbled and the bird-head lifted a thumb's up. Chuckling lightly, he said,"Piece of cake."

The red-head smiled back, sighing a little, "You got hurt pretty badly over a piece of cake."

Megumi watched the defeat with wonderment, "But that man was indescribably strong. Who in the world are those two anyway?"

Kaoru turned, a happy blush on her nose and her pupils quivering with relief, "They're the friends that I'm -" she closed her eyes to stop tears of joy from leaking out, "-Proud to have." She then ran to them, asking right away if they were all right.

"_You were lonely you said," Beshimi scratched his chest, "Well, I have been too."_

"Look at this! You're hurt!"

"_Well, I know a way to sneak out, I use it everyday, He rolled his eyes and stared at her intensely, "A-an-and I can let you go outside," Beshimi smiled._

"You won by the skin of your teeth…"

"_You're not sick are you, Fox?" He lifted the bun out for her, "Have you eaten?"-_

_-His hand stopped mid-way to his mouth. He turned and put the back of his hand to her forehead, feeling his own at the same time for comparison. _

Sano and Kenshin spoke to Kaoru, Megumi missing what they said exactly as her ears became deaf at what she saw with her eyes.

_"Beshimi," She tugged her hand but he held firm, "You don't have to hold my hand."_

Megumi opened her mouth and continued to stare, "They're friends…"

"And they're my friends too!" Yahiko jerked up a thumb under his chin, "I'm proud to have them as friends."

"Blast! That idiot Hyottoko lost to those guys so easily!" Beshimi hissed in the upper branches of the trees, observing the victory smiles of 'Kenshin's group' below. "And now I failed the Oniwaban group, AGAIN!"

His thin pupils darted across the yard and his shoulders sunk, "Hnn?"

_It's all because of THAT woman_. Beshimi growled inwardly and watched the fox and the boy converse in the winning air of the battle. _I don't know why Kanryu insists on having her back. _

His fingers twitched and his lowered his arm, a tack perched in his hand, _'But since she's the one responsible for my embarrassment…'_

Kenshin stiffened and turned to where the aura of deliberate harm was the strongest, "Who's there?"

"Take this!" His thumb smashed into the base of the wooden tack and it flew forward, its target, the pretty face of the fox.

She had a second to open her mouth wide before a flower of red exploded in front of her, Yahiko flying slowly to the ground and his arm bleeding from a tack lodged in his forearm.

"Ahhh!" The boy hit the ground and rolled over onto his side, clutching his arm in pain.

Beshimi leaned back, his eyes quivering and let a harsh cry slip, "What!" _That was a poison tack, damn it! Why did he have to get in the way for that woman's account! _Leader greatly disapproved of harming by-standers. _Stupid boy! _Surely, Hannya must've seen it too..._Damn it, he saved the wrong person! _

Beshimi was a heartless killer when it came down the grit of things, truly, but he always tried to live the way Okashira would expect him to behave and act. It was enough that Okashira disapproved of hurting others that weren't involved, and it wouldn't help that the said bystander was a kid.

But still, the boy jumped out on his on accord. If he died, protecting a wretched fox, it was his life to spend and Beshimi couldn't argue with him; It was on Megumi's head in the end, for running away and using these people like she used him.

Yahiko moved to a sitting position and shivered, gripping his arm tightly, as Kaoru approached him with worried and sisterly words. Yahiko looked up to meet her in the face, "Just didn't want you to forget that I'm a member of Kenshin's Group too! I got to show off every once in a while, you know?" He bent down slightly as the wound started to tingle.

"Stop acting like a little fool!" Kaoru scolded, "Come on now, show me your arm."

"Hey!" Yahiko yanked his arm from her, "Don't worry, I'm fine! Scratches like this are-Ah!" His pupils dilated and he fell weakly forward into Kaoru's surprised lap, "Yahiko!"

Beshimi jumped down from the tree, smiling at the guilty face the fox donned on her ghost pale face, "That's what he gets for butting in! There's no way that kid would last another hour!"

Megumi's face, with more guilt, widened in horror.

_Oh, it is too sweet..._Beshimi thought wickedly.

Megumi looked down slowly at the white eyes of the shivering boy, her face pinched.

_All the better, Fox. _Beshimi grinned wider, _You can face that boy in Hell!_ _But not before you know what wrath you called forth from me!_

"Death poison spiral attack. This is the ultimate attack of the Beshimi of the Oniwaban Group. I'll get rid of the rest of you too!" Beshimi's cat eyes glided over to the side of him where the red headed warrior Megumi was so fond of stood, "Starting with that swordsman guy-Hwah?"

Kenshin leapt into the air and at a great height he lifted the sword in a swift motion downward, "Hyaaaahhhhh!"

Beshimi froze at the fearsome warrior and didn't sense Hannya approach from behind him.

"Hyuht!" Kenshin's reverse blade struck the top of his head and blood poured from Beshimi's temple. A hand pulled him back from the rest of the strike and his green over coat was flung into the air as the ninja art of replacement was completed by Hannya.

Beshimi felt his feet come off the ground as Hannya gripped the back of his white shirt. The attack made him instantly woozy and he dazedly rasped, "Na-? Han-!"

A metal braced glove clashed into the back of his neck, "Guhk!" Beshimi's head drooped down and Hannya leapt in one swift motion to the roof, Kenshin still looking at the coat and empty space in confusion.

He sensed the movement on the roof and turned quickly to see Hannya standing there, Beshimi in his fist and massive Hyottoko over his shoulder.

"To think that a swordsman like you still exists in this day and age," Hannya looked down at Kenshin and almost amused, added, "I see we've taken our opponents too lightly." He snorted, "I'm sure I will fight you myself someday."

"Until then…we leave this fight unfinished," He smoothly jumped from the roof, carrying his wounded comrades with him.

"He's good," Kenshin sensed this much from the man before he left.

"Yahiko! Yahiko!" Kaoru desperately shook the boy's shoulders, sweat covering his face and his whole small frame quivering uncontrollably.

"Hold on, Yahiko," Sano paced a circle, at a lost of what to do, but determined and slightly angry all the same.

"Yahiko?" Kenshin drew closer as Kaoru brought the boy's arm up to her lips, "We've got to suck the poison out right away!"

"No!" Megumi's hand and firm protest, stopped her. Kaoru turned and angrily narrowed her eyes, "We're trying to save him! Get away!"

Megumi quickly went on to explain, "Sucking the poison out of a wound can cause bacterial infections and will most likely complicate Yahiko's recovery." She swiped at the loose hair that hung beside her face and pulled it behind her ear, "It's not something just anyone can do."

The doctor bent down and touched the boy's head, naming the symptoms aloud to herself, "Fever, lose of consciousness, dilated pupils…All are symptoms of thorn apple poisoning!" Her eyes flashed toward the boy's 'sister', "Miss, I'll write down the medication I need, so have it brought here immediately!" She turned to Kenshin next, "Sir Ken, boil some water, a towel and any medications you have in this place. And you with the headband! Go to the ice store and buy as much ice as you can carry."

They all stared at her authority dumbly and she lifted her head higher, her voice raising too, "What are you all waiting for? Detoxification and recovery are a race against time! Hurry!"

"Right," Kaoru rose and left quickly before Kenshin got up, "Okay!"

She lifted the light boy's body into her hands and rose herself, taking him into the safety of the house.

_Damn you, Beshimi! You've just proven that you deserve no sympathy from me with this!_

* * *

><p>"Oauhhhh," Beshimi pushed himself off his back and rubbed the base of his skull, "What the hell happened?"<p>

"Simple," Hannya crossed his arms, "You didn't follow the plan, Beshimi."

"I-" He lifted himself higher and spotted the large mass in the grass beside Hannya, "Hyottoko! Is he alright? Why isn't he up yet?"

"Fine," Hannya sniffed and moved to stand in Beshimi's way, "A fractured neck maybe…several other wounds perhaps. A concussion for sure."

"Hannya." Beshimi took another step to the side but the spy blocked him again, "Let me see him for myself."

"No."

"Why can't I?" Beshimi ran forward but was held back by long black and red tattooed arms, "Hannya, let me go!"

"You failed the Oniwaban group again, Beshimi!" Hannya flung him back and the man hit the grass with a soft thud, "I told you- no! You even cockily told us to follow the plan before we went in and what did you do? You messed up. AGAIN. And now your mistake ended in this." Hannya's blue gloves, shaking with surpressed rage, pointed down at Hyottoko.

"Hyottoko wasn't hurt because of me!" Beshimi leapt forward and tried to get past the arms, "No! I followed orders! You told me to observe. I never intervened, even when I wanted to! It was only when Hyo-"

"I could of grabbed Megumi Takani, fool! If you didn't jump down and reveal yourself, I would've grabbed the opium woman then, you and I could manage in carrying Hyottoko AND the Megumi Takani away like the **Shinobis** we are, but you had to complicate things!" Hannya pushed him to the ground again, "Beshimi! Why can't you listen?"

He didn't get up, mumbling in a rough and low voice,"I don't know."

Hannya sighed raggedly before turning and bending down to Hyottoko's side, "He needs medical help. A doctor."

"I know a few tricks," Beshimi nodded into the ground, _From Megumi's medical journals. _"Our basic skills should suffice until we get Megumi back and force her to treat us-ernm, Hyottoko."

"We will," Hannya hoisted Hannya carefully over his shoulder, "Let's go, Beshimi. I'm tired of dragging you-"

"Aa, Hannya."He listened, and obeyed.

* * *

><p><strong>End Chapter 10...<strong>

**Next chapter/Megumi should've never even thought that she could escape Kanryu...or opium.  
><strong>


	11. Chapter 11: Dreams That End

_**A/N: Hmm, the last chapter was interesting to write, considering that it's not my story such much anymore….anyhow, let's continue with (hopefully) more epicness!**_

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><p><strong>In this chapter: Life was becoming a blissful dream for Megumi…but all dreams end. Sometimes, in a nightmare.<strong>

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><p>Chapter 11: "Dreams that End"<p>

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><p>"Hah!" Beshimi jerked away from the cloth, "That hurt, Shikijou!"<p>

"Sorry," Shikijou's beefy palm clamped on the top of his head, the wild hair becoming smashed underneath, "I ain't a doctor but I know when it needs more than a wrap."

"Back off," Beshimi hissed than yowled at the pain in his forehead as the cloth was once again touched on his head. "Sssstop it!"

Hannya irritably yanked the linen around the still unconscious Hyottoko's arm tight. With a low snarl, he muttered, "Stop your complaining, Beshimi."

"When Takani get's back she can do the doctoring," Beshimi curled his arms around his bent legs, "Gods' knows she has a gentler touch than you, muscle-bound buffoon."

Shikijou looked angry for a second than slapped the cloth into the wooden bucket, "I'm going to say that was blood loss, Beshimi."

"Call it what you want," Beshimi blinked, noticing by the sticky contraction of his skin that his face was still covered in blood…his blood, "Hand me the cloth, I can take care of myself."

"As you always do," Shikijou said blandly and slid the bucket closer to the other demon-ninja, "Need a mirror again?"

"That would be helpful but not needed," Beshimi scrubbed his face, flinching as he neared where the swordsman struck him with his odd sword. If it wasn't for that swords oddity, he'd be dead. A mistake he could never feel sorry about because his life would've ended then before he could feel anything at all.

Despite that fact, the feeling of failing to capture Megumi Takani gnawed on his skull more than the pain or his brush with death. It made him angrier as he scrubbed the blood off his face that otherwise _she'd_ be forcing him to sit still for and tend to, because she was a 'doctor.'

He bent his head down and with stinging eyes, surely from the pain in his head, brought his hands to his lips. He licked his scraped knuckles clean and kept licking even after, not even aware of his comrades staring at him silently.

He didn't look like a wounded stray cat like he usually did when he 'treated' himself.

He looked like Beshimi. He looked like he was at a complete loss.

* * *

><p>The boy recovered. With the help of the local doctor, Gensai, and the her constant attention to the boy's every need, Yahiko grew strong on his feet again.<p>

One day, a couple of days from when they first accepted her into their 'group', Megumi prepared food for them since the food Kaoru cooked tasted worse than when Hannya tried his hand at it. And that in its self took an odd sense of talent since Hannya always burned it and flavored it with an ungodly amount of salt. Kaoru's cooking…Megumi couldn't even tell what it was supposed to be let alone identify it as burnt or too salty. It was just...awful.

The birds chirped and twittered outside merrily as Megumi unveiled her treat, receiving many happy and surprised gasps from Kenshin and his friends. Gensai and the two little girls with him also marveled at the beautiful_ Ohagi_ presented to them.

Megumi kneeled in her clean pink yukata that she wore under her blue coat and pulled her hair free from the cloth around her hair, "I can't even remember the last time I made Ohagi."

That much was actually true. She made so many snacks for the Oniwaban but still…she hadn't made it since she befriended Beshimi on false pretenses and poisoned him with the buns. No, Ohagi definitely came before all that.

"Oh my gosh you made Ohagi!" The eldest little girl gasped in surprise before the littlest of the two girls copied.

"O' mah gos'h you mad' ohagi!"

Yahiko looked around the merry table and asked, "Hmm? Hey, have you seen Sanosuke?"

"I haven't seen him around," Kaoru answered before tilting her head carefree, "He probably went back to his own place to take a nap or something."

"I'm sure Sano's tired because we were up so late last night, we were." Kenshin looked down at Yahiko who's recovery finally ended the night before.

"I'm sure the guy will show up eventually," Kaoru nodded her agreement before smiling at the two girls getting bonked on the heads by Gensai for reaching for the Ohagi too soon.

"We'll just have to start celebrating Yahiko's recovery without him, I guess." Kenshin smiled a very small smile before Yahiko happily dug in.

"Oh yeah! Now you're talking! Let's eat!"

The rest cheered with him and took pieces for themselves. They all bit into the Ohagi right away and eyes grew wide at the wonderful taste that met their tongues.

"Yummy!" Yahiko stuffed more into his mouth quickly as Kaoru joined him.

"Yahiko!" Her voice was muffled by the food stuffed in her cheeks and the hand that covered her mouth, "Take it easy! You shouldn't eat so much after getting over being poisoned!"

Yahiko defiantly rose and clutch two ohagi in his hand, and more shoved in his mouth, "Give me a break! You got to be out of your mind if you think I'm going to let you eat my share, Kaoru."

"You found me out," Kaoru said sweetly, her mouth once again empty, before she turned up her shoulders and turned to Megumi, "Uhm, Miss Megumi? Do you think you could teach me ohagi sometime?"

"All right, it really isn't all that hard," Megumi informed her with a smile and Kaoru turned to Yahiko, "Alright! So next time it will be my turn to make it, Yahiko."

"Hehn," Yahiko leaned back and rolled his eyes to the side, ohagi spilling out his mouth, "If I had to eat some ohagi that you made Kaoru…I'd think I'd probably be better off eating cakes made out of mud, heh hnn."

Kaoru pushed the boy's face into his handfuls of Ohagi and muttered, "I swear! You may be studying harder but your manners sure haven't improve a single bit!"

Yahiko rose from the fistfuls, fuming, "What the heck did you do that for?!"

The two little ones laughed, "Yahiko looks just like ohagi now!"

"Yahiko, looks jus' lik' ohagi!"

After laughing at the cake covered face of Yahiko, Megumi looked at Kaoru, "You two certainly do get along well. It is almost like you're family."

Both scoffed at the thought than continued to insult each other on why the other would make a horrible sibling. Kenshin said something more about how they fight like real brother and sister and Megumi lost herself in a early memory of her family.

They were impressed with how she ground medicine…it almost hurt thinking about them now.

"So," Kaoru's voice brought her back to the table, "What's your family like, Miss Megumi?"

She turned sadly, "I don't have a family."

They all stared quietly, bits of ohagi sticking to their faces, and waited for someone to say something, anything.

"Well, I should probably start making the tea," Megumi rose up to her feet and walk away, silently cursing herself for ruining a happy moment like that. She often did that with the Oniwaban too, by accident. But then again, they did it to back to her too, sometimes. Happy moments were almost made to be ruined it seemed in her life.

She found herself a bit chilly so she pulled on her coat before making her way to the kitchen to prepare the tea. Aoshi and Hannya had a strange addiction to tea, though they never worded it like that. But not a day went by that either of them drank anything but. Beshimi seemed to dislike the more bitter kinds while Shikijou and Hyottoko didn't care at all what went into their mouths so long as it didn't kill them.

It was strange how she kept thinking about them. She almost thought about them as much as she thought about her family, which was odd. She never got close to them, excluding of course Beshimi, because she knew, in the end, they only worked for Kanryu and helped the pig keep her imprisoned.

She also was _very_ aware that each and every single one of them was deadly, though at first with Beshimi she had her doubts. If the incident with Yahiko taught her anything it was not to underestimate their strengths and that she meant nothing to them as a whole. Why did she think of them so familiarly?

The good doctor defiantly found something in the Oniwaban that she couldn't see. They were blindly loyal to Aoshi and that, even she had to admit, was admirable. But besides that fact, she couldn't ever find herself drawn to them for company before. But, the late good-doctor did…often.

"_They want someone to eat with just as much as you do." _He said, _"They need each others companionship but they cannot have it anymore as they work for Kanryu. We will provide the chance. Isn't that what good doctor's do? Make sure people stay healthy physically AND emotionally?"_

The man was a very good doctor. She hardly cared about her imprisonment as long as the doctor kept her smiling. But his smiles ended with a one murderous stroke that seemed to surprise, and slightly rile, even the Oniwaban, though nothing was said from them.

They were good people, the doctor said long ago. Megumi couldn't agree with him now that she helped heal the boy one of them nearly killed, and she saw _true_ kind people here at the Kamiya Dojo.

Kenshin was a lucky man to have such friends.

She smiled as she poured the hot water into the cups, "I'd never expected I'd meet such good people."

"And exactly how do you plan to explain this to all those good people out there," Sano's voice startled her and she spun around to see him in the doorway that led outside.

He walked in and put his hands in his pockets casually, "Explain to me why you'd have something like this."

His hand came out and withdrew a crumpled paper, "Why do you have opium!" He angrily threw it onto the wood planks and Megumi stared as the drugs floated from the paper in a cloud of white dust.

Sano pulled in his legs as Kaoru's voice made Megumi's throat tighten, "Opium?"

Kaoru and Kenshin were in the doorway, clearly checking on her after taking so long to boil the water, and perhaps her sad comments from before. Megumi looked sadly to the ground.

"I'm waiting for an explanation, lady!" Sano yelled while looking at her. Searching for any sign that she'd falter and tell him.

_I knew this good dream wouldn't last long…_

"I was the one…" She opened her eyes and turned to look straight at Sano, "…who made the opium."

"I see," His fists clenched and his eyes flashed, "You were the one that gave that stuff to Yoida and killed one of my best friends!"

"Wait, Sanosuke!" Kaoru took a step forward, before turning to Takani, "Miss Megumi, please tell us the reason. Why is it you have opium with you?"

She choked on her words. _They still trusted her!_

Kenshin took a step into the kitchen behind Kaoru, "Could it be that you are the daughter of someone named Ruisei Takani, perhaps?"

* * *

><p>"She took it all." Hannya stood at the doorway of the room and crossed his arms, "Did you know that, Beshimi?"<p>

"All of what?" Beshimi leaned back into his elbows, Hyottoko snoring on his headrest in the futon that laid beside his own.

Hannya leaned into the door frame, "The spider opium that Kanryu wanted to put out to the public today."

"Eh?" Beshimi scratched the tip of his pointed nose, _Good for you, fox. You managed to do one thing right...stupid woman._ Without blinking, he mumured in a bored tone, "That so?"

"You didn't know?" Hannya stared darkly at him, "Did you? The day she ran away she took it and I'm to believe you didn't see her as you guarded her?"

"So it would 's more sneaky then we thought," Beshimi shifted in his mat, "Strange, isn't it?"

"Strange indeed," Hannya took a step in and swooped down to one knee in front of Beshimi, "I am beginning to wonder on how Megumi Takani escaped at all."

"I believe the Okashira knows and that's all that matters," Beshimi frowned, "You have no business knowing if Okashira hasn't told you yet."

"No, I suppose not," Hannya angrily leaned closer, "But if I find you, in any way, betrayed the Okashira or the Oniwaban Group, the head injury from the Battousai will seem like a pleasant dream."

Beshimi blinked slowly, by know he had already heard about the red-headed and scarred cheeks warrior and his dark past. All discovered by Hannya of course. Who he stared at out of the corner of his sharp eye and drawled, "Hnnnh, it that right? Hannya, I'm not afraid of that. If I ever were to betray, then the worse of punishments is expected."

"At least you understand." Hannya growled.

"But at the hands of the Okashira…not you." Beshimi finished harshly and turned over, his back toward the spy.

"You'll wish it was me instead."

"No, I wouldn't.**"**

* * *

><p>Megumi scrubbed with all her might at the dishes in the bucket. She killed one man with opium for sure…surely more as well.<p>

_It's time you stopped blaming yourself for what happened. You suffered long enough and now its time you forgave yourself for what wasn't your choice to begin with. _

Sir Ken's words brought so much peace to her chest but her mind was still heavy with Sano's anger from the death of his friend.

_Do I even deserve peace of mind? Can this good dream really last forever?_

"Auntie Megumi would you like to play with us?"

"Com' on let's play together Auntie Megumi."

She turned and smiled at the two little girls that was visiting again with Doctor Gensai, still checking in on Yahiko. She closed her eyes lightly and answered, "Sure, right after I finish this."

Megumi chuckled and turned her head back to the dishes as the giggling girls trotted away, out of sight. Thinking to herself, _What a wonderful dream it is in any case, _she continued the dishes until a surprised gasp was forced from her lips- "Hah!"

A kunai flew past her head and into the wood board away from her. Chills running up her arms, she stared at the cold black metal and paper tied to it.

Slowly, she wrenched Beshimi's kunai out of the boards and uncurled the paper around it. The writing was not Beshimi's, as she had seen his writing many times in the notes he made, but it was someone else's she could recognize. Kanryu.

Her grip tightened around the paper and she rushed out the gate and into the woods as quickly as her feet could take her. She knew she couldn't stay there forever, but to leave so soon?!- Damn you Kanryu!

She wouldn't just wait for capture. As she said to Beshimi, she would do everything she could to avoid going back. Megumi ran into the woods, away from Tokyo and the mansion, the letter still tight in her hand as she blindly pushed forward. Along the road, after running a good distance, she nearly bumped into a short pudgy man with a kind face. She stopped short as he continued to smile at her, and she caught her breath.

"Hello," He greeted with a old creaky voice, "Thank you so much for stopping by. Is there anything I can help you with? Anything at all?"

Megumi blinked twice in surprise at the friendliness, something you couldn't find often, and the strange way he said things. Confused, Megumi said, "No…Thank you."

"I see," The man reached for his cap, exposing a black and red striped tattoo that ran up his arms and a purple glove, "Very well then." He dipped his head, pulling the cap off, "But although I can't help you…"

The disguise ripped away from him and Hannya returned to his normal voice and height, "There is something…that you can help me with." He pulled the cap off completely and tossed it aside.

Takani couldn't hold in her gasp, "Wha-!?"

A powerful hand gripped her face and covered her mouth tightly and painfully. Hannya stared demonically down at her and informed her, "Kanryu Takeda is waiting for you."

_Oh gods no!_ Megumi pulled away from the grasp but managed nothing but pain in her face as his fingers tightened harder, "No, getting away from me like you did Beshimi."

He yanked her up into the air by her face and threw her over his shoulder, before jumping away and chuckling deep in his throat. His feet planted into the side of a tree trunk and he launched himself away, zooming to Kanryu.

* * *

><p>"There's no need to worry," Kanryu assured as he smoked his awful cigar, "As I wrote in the letter, I promise not to hurt you Miss Megumi. All I want is for you to come back where you belong. I promise to forgive everything if you just come along quietly."<p>

Megumi felt the paper in her hand dampen with her sweat, "And I assume you want me to make opium for you again."

"Of course!" Kanryu lowered his hand, "After all, making opium is your job, isn't it my dear? You certainly never had a problem with it up until now, right?"

She lowered her hand slightly also and gave a confident smile. She bowed her head and finally rested her hand against her side, "I couldn't go through with killing myself, because if I stayed alive and kept myself in medicine, I knew that someday be united with the rest of my family. That's why I couldn't do it!"

"That's a wonderful story dear," Kanryu's cigar smoke floated into the wooded air as he smiled, "I'm sure you'll see your family again one day."

His light chuckle following it did not show that he truly thought along the same line with his words.

"But now I've finally made a decision," Megumi continued darkly.

Kanryu shrugged slightly, "Hmm?"

"I don't care if I don't ever see them again," She lifted her head, "If it means that I'd have to go back to making a drug that kills people-" Megumi lurched forward, "Than I would much rather die!"

Kanryu took dangerous steps towards her, "That's touching. But I'd never let you die alone. Perhaps the Kamiya Dojo will have a mysterious fire and in the ruins they'll find charred bodies of several children or something along those lines."

"What?" Megumi breathed in, shocked at the horrid man before her. "What do you mean?"

"Don't looked so shocked and surprised my dear," Kanryu then gestured to Hannya, "Starting a fire or two is a piece of cake for the Oniwanban Group. They'd be back at home in time for breakfast!"

Megumi shivered and looked over her shoulder at him. He was a companion of the honorable Oniwaban Group. He wouldn't do that would he? If he would or wouldn't wasn't painted on his demon mask and she shivered at the image of Hyottoko taking in a huge breath and setting flames to Kaoru's home. The kind people, the innocent people, trapped and unsuspecting inside.

"No please." Megumi shook her head to free it of the images.

Kanryu walked closer to her again, "Face it. You can't run away from me and you don't have the courage to take your own sweet life. Unless of course you don't mind dying with the knowledge of those around you will suffer immensely because of your selfishness!"

Megumi's mind raced with any possibility to get herself out of this. She came up with nothing at all.

"Your life is bound to mine," Kanryu walked past her and brought his cigar up to his lips, "So, let's try to be on friendly terms like we were before. I hope we have an understanding, Miss Megumi. For now, and forever."

She trembled a bit and stared into Hannya's Oni mask before Takeda added, "Oh I almost forgot! Make sure you practice your fire safety drills."

After she could no longer hear their footsteps moving away from her she dropped to her knees, crying out tears that she never felt to weep before. She sobbed hopelessly, _I can't run away from Kanryu…or from opium. I can never run away! _

Her hands met her eyes as she cried louder.

_This world…how cruel it is to end my good dream in this way…_

* * *

><p>"Beshimi," Hannya stood in the door once more as the goblin leaned over Hyottoko's massive head and unfolded the powder from the triangular piece of paper, "Is that opium?"<p>

"Of course not! It's a pain killer I made and stuck in some left over paper that Takani left!" Beshimi pinched his thumb over the top of the straw that was plunged into a ceramic cup and pulled up water, then he put the end of the straw in Hyottoko's open and unconscious mouth before releasing the contents. The powder flowing into Hyottoko's throat.

"Hmm," Hannya crossed his arms as Beshimi crouched by the tray of water and open another packet.

"He was moaning earlier. I couldn't sleep..." Beshimi mumbled grumpily, before opening his mouth nad licking at the paper in his hand, taking a sip of water afterwards, and swallowing with obvious disgusted gulp. "What is it you want, anyways?" Beshimi asked, staring at Hannya with glowing eyes in the dark room, "Something must be said, so say it if you pleassse, Hannya."

"Aa," Hannya nodded his head once, "Megumi Takani is no longer our concern, the Battousai is. So says the Okashira."

"T-the Okashira said that?" Beshimi lifted his wrapped head, "W-why is-?"

"Go get ready." Hannya said firmly and turned to face back out the open door, "Megumi will be here and _you _will be the one to bring her back inside Kanryu's mansion, understand?"

Beshimi swallowed dryly, the water he drank earlier no where to be found in his mouth, "Okashira ordered this?"

"No, but he put me in charge of mission arrangements again." Hannya glanced over his shoulder, "You do not want to?"

"N-no, I'll do it." Beshimi pulled at the wrap around his head and ripped it away, "Anything to prove myself as a worthy Oniwaban ninja again."

Hannya's voice dropped low, "Is that why you are doing it, Beshimi?"

"Why else?" Beshimi stood up and threw the bandages on the floor, "What more would I want?"

"Even as a loyal Oniwaban I understand that men want other things than just titles and serving their leader." Hannya spoke in a cold voice, "Do not misinterpret this mission assigned to you as a gesture to earn you face back with the group. I did it so you can stop dreaming about Megumi Takani."

Beshimi felt his face blush despite himself, "I'm not dreaming about-!"

"You did when you and her were companions-" Hannya took a step away from the door, before replying to the wide-eyed and unbreathing face that Beshimi shot his way, "Yes, I know about that now. And I know that you are still dreaming now that you miss her companionship. But you know as well as I that when we get her back you cannot be that ever again. Friends, or anything else. I'll be surprised if the Okashira even lets you near her again. You would be wise to settle it now, Beshimi. Before Megumi leaves this world after divulging the secrets of the drug!"

The door closed shut and Beshimi swallowed back a lump in his throat. "Damn you Hannya and your skills of getting information."

"S'that true, Shorty?" Hyottoko's low voice surprised him, and Beshimi turned to meet his face, "Huh?"

"M-more or le-" Beshimi rubbed the top his hands, "Agh, I couldn't help it."

"I knew it," Hyottoko smiled weakly before sadly looking at the roundness of his stomach through the blanket, "Too bad, Beshimi…you've got to stop dreaming about her. There isn't any way for it to work now..."

"Yeah…" Beshimi pulled his glove up higher, before clenching his fist with a tight 'Twap!' sound, "Too bad for me…"

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><p><strong>End Chapter 11...<strong>

**Next Chapter/Megumi is taken back into the mansion and Beshimi actually gives her a gift before they finally say good bye to each other.  
><strong>

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><p><strong><em>AN: Yes I went there! Couldn't help it really. I never intended it to be like that but as I was writing this story, it wouldn't leave my mind after a while (You could probably tell)...so yay, MegumixBeshimi! Well...I guess not. Yep, it would never work. Too bad Beshimi..._  
><strong>


	12. Chapter 12: Another Life

_**A/N: I'm starting to get just a tad bit sad… :'(  
><strong>_

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><p><strong>In this chapter: She see's the gate, but someone is there to meet her. But is Sano the only one there to see her?<strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 12: "Another Life"<p>

* * *

><p>Megumi Takani saw her fate before her, trapped for the rest of her days behind those imposing stone walls and never breathing fresh air again. The iron pointed bars that made top of the front gate of the Kanryu Mansion loomed before her. This was the last time she'd see anything outside it.<p>

Beshimi might kill her in her sleep when she returned, considering he tried to kill her before, but that might be hoping for to much. Most likely, she'd probably never see him again either. She'd be more alone than ever, and it was her fault. How could she dare to think she could ever get away from all this short of killing herself? There was no way, and Kanryu had proved it.

And now she couldn't even kill herself.

The decorated surface of the main gate drew closer to her. It was going to be her cage. What a foolish fox she was to return to her cage willingly. A foolish fox…Her eyes stopped drifting over the late sun glaring off of the gate to see a man dressed in white, leaning into the gate.

"What are you planning to do?" Sano tilted his head down but stared at her through his red headband, "Going back to work for Kanryu Takeda?"

She put on a brave smile and looked away, "Please don't worry…I don't plan on ever making any more of the opium that killed your best friend."

Sano pushed himself off of the gate and strode towards her as she finished, "I promise I won't."

"You know Kanryu isn't exactly going to be thrilled to hear that," His feet stopped in front of her long shadow.

"I just promised you didn't I? And I'll keep that promise, so don't get in my way." She pushed past him and made her way toward the gate. "I'm in a hurry."

"Don't be in such a hurry to die." His voice said sternly.

Megumi stopped short, his words striking her as surprising. Especially since it was coming from _him, _Sanosuke of all people, who would probably want her dead for death of his friend.

"You got Kenshin, and Sanosuke too, at your side," He paused for a breath, "There's no need to try and be a martyr."

"You too?" Megumi turned and looked at the _'aku'_ character on the back of the man.

"Come on," He paused again for a moment, "The others are waiting for you at the dojo…and somewhere out there your family is waiting you too."

Megumi turned away from him, her eyes sparkling and her voice heavy with sad happiness, "Thank you so much. But even if I was to find my family, how could they ever look at me the same way again? I'm a criminal that's part of an opium operation. There's no way I can erase a dirty past like that no matter what…"

A light breeze blew through and rustled the trees lightly and making the coat flap against Sano's back. "Don't be so self righteous!"

"Do you think you're the only one in the world that's got a dirty past that can't be erased?" Sano stuck his hands in his pockets and left them there, "If you die here, do you think its gonna bring my friend back to life? If you're alive you can repent for what you've done. There will be a day when you see your family again and if you die…its all gone."

Megumi opened her mouth, not quite sure what she was going to say. Sano flinched and grabbed her shoulders, yanking her back as a metal ball crashed into the ground where she once stood.

"Hey! I'm impressed!" Shikijou called out to Sano from the top of the gate, "Not many people could'a dodged that one! Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!"

"Who the hell are you!?" Sano yelled back up and Shikijou yanked on the ball's chain to bring it back to him.

It landed in his scarred palm and he held it forward before speaking, "I'm the dungeon guard of the Edo castle Oniwaban group…Shikijou!" He stretched out his name to make it sound interesting. "If you don't hand over the broad to me quietly, then the next attack will crush all your bones to dust!"

Sano took a step in front of Megumi despite the threats.

Shikijou took a sharp bite of air before launching another swinging attack toward the fist fighter. Sano stretched out his arms and caught the ball in his hands, grunting as it hit his stomach. Shikijou growled and pulled the chain taunt between them, straining at the surprising strength from the skinny guy before him.

One of the links snapped and Sano threw the ball to the ground before stamping his foot into it, "Why don't you try fighting like a real man and stop using little toys like this thing. Or are you chicken?"

"Heh! I eat guys like you for breakfast when I was a dungeon guard!" Shikijou boasted, "And your callin' me a chicken? I'm make sure you regret ever underestimate me you scrawny weakling!" Shikijou let the loose chain fall from his meaty palm.

"COME ON KID LET'S FIGHT!" Roaring, Shikijou jumped into the air, before ripping his shirt to expose his muscles and scars that rippled and covered his skin. He couldn't care less about Megumi at the moment, since he was more interested and growing excited and by the opponent before him.

"Here I come! Let's do it!" Sano charged forward and landed many punches into Shikijou's abdomen, not a one having any effect.

"Your punches don't even itch!" Shikijou looked down at him with intense eyes and added, "Now let me give you a taste of the strength Shikijou of the Oniwaban Group!"

They grappled each others hands and pushed against the other. Shikijou lifted Sano into the air and swung him into the gate, taking no time for a warning before crashing his hard skull into Sano's head.

Megumi gasped and Shikijou leaned away from Sano's head, smiling as Sano weakly fell over a bit.

"Why you dirty-" Sano croaked and sat on shaking knees.

"I'm surprised your skull didn't split open after one of my head butts," Shikijou looked down, "But I'd hate to see what your brains look like right now. Have you ever seen scrambled brains? The shock you just got will make sure you won't even be able to move your little finger for a while."

Shikijou tilted his hips and grabbed his muscled forearm proudly, "I've learned how to make my entire body as hard as steel! And any part of me can be used as a weapon! I feel sorry for you kid…You had to fight an invincible guy who's strength couldn't be beat! Too bad your not going to learn from your mistake…"

He then laughed heartily and maneuvered his fist to crash over the top of Sano's head, "I'll show a little mercy on you though. I'll finish you NOW!" Shikijou pulled back his arm and swung to punch Sano's head open, stopping when Sano caught it in his palm.

Smirking, Sano caught the other punch in his direction.

"So, you can't be beat? You're invincible? " Sano's voice cracked a bit, but a strength behind it showed no fear, "Give me a break. Kenshin is invincible and one of him is more than enough. Someone from the Oniwaban Group who became a lousy henchman for scum like Kanryu Takeda, doesn't deserve to say that to me!"

"I'm gonna shut your mouth for good punk!" Shikijou threw the arms to the side and swung fist downward. Sano sidestepped, noticed his opening, and blasted his knuckles into Shikijou's forehead.

"What was that you were saying again?" Sano cockily smiled, "Something about being hard headed and what scrambled brains look like?

Shikijou fell backwards but before his body could touch the ground in a cloud of dust, Beshimi jumped down from the branches, only a few leaves falling to the ground with him, landing on his haunches.

He hopped from side to side, zigzagging, and threw back his sinewy arm. Silently striking Megumi in her gut, his fist forced a gasp to burst from her mouth before she fell limp over his shoulder. He smiled tightly when his curled fist made contact, finding a satisfaction in her surprised face at his sudden appearance for all the trouble she alone caused.

"B-Beshimi?" She coughed lightly and her entire face twitched with the effort to move her body.

The little demon grasped her lower back, and sped back toward the gate, a pleased smirk over his lips.

"Well, should we get going now?" Sano looked up and smiled warmly at the space that Takani once stood at, Shikijou's body hitting the ground with a loud thud. His large brown eyes met Beshimi's cold ones as the ninja darted past him.

His small body made after images as he used his speed to leap up with a grunt and cling to the upper bars of the gate.

"Hey, get back here!" Sano winced as his head finally felt the effects of Shikijou's attacks and crumbled down to one knee.

"I'm taking Megumi," Beshimi announced and chuckled as he gave another smirk down at Megumi's other new friend, another man, with a smug sense of victory.

"Sano!" The red headed warrior called to his friend and ran up to his wounded companion.

The boy and the Kamiya girl also came to Sano's aid, the boy asking, "Are you alright, Sanosuke?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me," He turned to look back up at the Oniwaban nin, "We got to save her."

Beshimi hopped over the gate, Megumi's eyes closed and her unconscious head slumping down against his back.

"Miss Megumi!"

* * *

><p>"Wake up, fox!" Beshimi drummed his fingers against her forehead. She screwed her eyes shut and rolled over in the futon she was laying in.<p>

"I'll make a snack for you in minute, Beshimi," She grumbled and then felt a force push her and cause her to roll over many times until she felt the hard floor that was underneath the cushy futon. Rubbing her eyes, she opened them to find Beshimi standing up with a futon bed curled in his arms.

"Hmm? Beshimi?" Megumi swiped at her eyes again and looked around, not at all recognizing the dark room she was in, "Where am I? What is this awful place? It smells terrible."

"Kanryu's Mansion, in the basement level. " Beshimi sneered a bit, "This is _mine_ and Hyottoko's room by the way, fox."

"Oh," Megumi frowned, not at all feeling a need to apologize for calling his room an 'awful place' or commenting on the interesting stench the rose from everything in his room. Her sleepy head also cleared and she remembered everything. The Kamiya Dojo wasn't a dream, and she was back here again, trapped. But, she expected to wake up in Kanryu's presence or even in her own hallway inside the mansion. Not in the basement with the stray cat glaring at her through the darkness.

"Why am I here?" Megumi asked the diminutive ninja huffily.

"Hyottoko," Beshimi pointed behind her with a vague gesture as he set the futon down in a crumpled pile. For the first time, Megumi turned and looked over her shoulder, the mass that was the Oniwaban's fire magic user snoring under a blanket.

"Aa," She nodded before turning back to the short man who was now rolling a spiral tack between his fingers, "What do you want me to do?"

Beshimi's face twisted and every facial feature of his pulled downward, "Since you're the cause of all this mess, you're going to treat him!"

"Are you going to make me?" Megumi smapped and put her hands on her hips, "I find that hard to believ-!"

She yelped as a tanned hand pressed into the side of her neck, half-choking her, and pressed down hard on her shoulder.

"Listen, and listen closely, fox." Beshimi hissed low and leaned his narrow face closer to hers, his angry breath brushing up against her cheeks, "You are going to help him. If not, then you are worthless to me and I will kill you now, no matter what Kanryu has to say about it."

"Is that so?" Megumi coughed lightly and raised her shoulders to try to shake the painful grip from her shoulder, but failed as his nails dug down, "Ow! Don't hold me so tightly ugly little man!"

Megumi winced at the nails that bit into her shoulder. Beshimi glared down at her, only a couple heads taller standing then she kneeling, his eyes slightly covered from the shadows that the dim lamp by the door could not illuminate. He lifted his gloved hand, his other still on her shoulder with a numbing grip, and pointed the tip of the tack at her lips, "Could you imagine what would happen if you swallow a poisoned tack? Maybe I'll just flick it into the back of your throat and let you gag until the poison takes effect. Or even better-" He lowered his head again, his slightly gleaming eyes slightly relieving themselves of the shadows, "I'll just give you a knife and watch you kill yourself, since you were so set on that a while ago."

"I have things to live for!" Megumi gulped and jerked against Beshimi's hand, thinking about Sanosuke's words, "I can't die yet!"

"Is that right?" Beshimi uncurled his fingers and released her shoulder, "Is that what that rooster-head said? You have a family you'll see again and the Kamiya dojo are your friends and that you can repent…Pah! I will never let you have an easy carefree break after what you did to me, fox!"

Megumi flinched as he spat out the words, her eyes then flashing when he was done, "What did I do to you to deserve no peace of mind?! I didn't do a thing but want to be free from Kanryu! Surely you can understand that! Even if I'm horrible you're more so! You almost killed that boy if I didn't intervene with-"

"Shut it! Don't act like this all isn't your fault! You were the one that ran away and you are to blame for this!" Beshimi, in his anger, spun around and hurled his tack from his clenched fist into the wall with a loud and shattering clatter. " That poison was meant for you! That boy shouldn't have jumped in the way!"

"Are you a child?" Megumi raised her chin, and with a sharp glare, Beshimi looked over his shoulder at her stern voice as she continued,"Is the only thing you know is to blame other people? Admit it! You must've been suspicious of me! It took so long for me to just convince you to take me outside and even then I couldn't run away because you couldn't trust me. But, you did trust me, eventually, and I don't see why. As a ninja, shouldn't you have been able to do something about it?! Couldn't you have sensed something or feel that I was not what I was?"

"Why did you have to use me? Why not anyone else? Damn you Megumi, I-!" Beshimi twitched and he whirled back on his heel to her face, "W-why did you use me like that? You made me believe that we were friends!"

"No, we weren't," Megumi lowered her voice, "We never were and you know that. You were suspicious of me, and I was using you, how can you call that a friendship?"

"I was never suspicious of you!" His brows arched upwards and his face brew a pink tinge, "Don't you get it? I was fully tricked by you! I was-!"

"Was what Beshimi?!" Megumi raised her voice again as he continued to yell, "What?"

His face pinched together and trembled before he turned away again and brought his hands to the sides of his head, "Never mind it, fox! Just help Hyottoko now!"

"Fine," Megumi pursed her lips, "Where are the medical supplies then?"

"Under there," Beshimi pointed to the shelf with many small boxes and strange herbs piled in the upper shelves, a medical box in the most lowest, and raggedly breathed as he calmed himself, "You should find all you need in it."

"Hmph!" Megumi's pride hit her in the chest as she strode to the wall to retrieve it, her fingers tingling. Guilt was poking her in the back but her pride forced her to keep looking ahead. The strange words as well jabbed her mind. _Was he meaning to say that-?_

"I don't want to beg, especially to you, but help him, Megumi," Beshimi hissed a bit and lowered himself to the floor, his eyes averted from her stare.

Megumi. Not sweetheart, cutie, fox, vixen, woman, bitch or **Megumi Takani** said in contempt. Just a small, almost breathless, Megumi.

"I will," She smiled a bit, her eyes not smiling with it, "Don't worry, I'm still a doctor."

"Then do it," The harshness in his face and voice returned, "Now."

Her voice also had an edge to it return, "Fine."

She began to work, her sleeves pulled back and before to long Beshimi started to pace around and biting his thumb nail nervously behind her.

She looked over her shoulder and said in a not at all kind voice, "I said I'll take care of him, stop worrying."

"Leave me be," He sneered, "I'm worrying about something else."

Megumi went back to her treatment and did her best to ignore the thumping of foot falls behind her. After what seemed a very long time she looked up.

"He is fine." Megumi squinted in the dim light, " He was treated before. Who helped him before me?"

"I did," Beshimi crossed his arms and plopped to the floor, crossing his legs as he hit the mats, "But I expected you to do a better job, fox."

"I did." She repeated his words in the same agitated tone that he had.

Beshimi bit his lower lip, thinking more, as Megumi began to put supplies away.

Hannya was not one to anger in any circumstance, and that was exactly what he was about to do. He might die too, since most likely since this would count as betrayal to the masked demon. But then again, it didn't immediately harm the Okashira, though even merciful Leader might not like or approve of what he was thinking of doing. Beshimi let his lip go from his sharp teeth. The Okashira will understand if he explained it to him. Leader knew he was weak, it probably wouldn't even surprise him.

Megumi looked down at the re-wrapped neck that she had added a brace to, "He needed more support here, but you did a good enough job…"

"Megumi, " Beshimi, now leaning over her shoulder and surprising her, twisted his mouth to the side, "…Kanryu wants you back upstairs…but I have something first…"

"Beshimi?" Megumi rubbed her chest, the jumped nerves calming from his sudden closeness, "If there is something you want to say to me, then I want you to go on and say it!"

"Fine," Beshimi sighed then lifted his hand, "A question for you, sweetheart."

"What is it?" Megumi cringed at the nickname again… before blinking as Beshimi opened his mouth.

"Do you still want to repent?" Beshimi stuck his hand through his clothes and pulled a sheathed dagger.

Megumi swallowed as the knife was laid across the man's open palms, "I do."

"Then take it," Beshimi held out his hands, his head dipping a little.

"Why?" Megumi watched his fingers tighten around the sheath.

"Do with it as you like, fox," Beshimi uncurled his bony digits, "But remember that I'm the one who gave it to you."

"Why?" Megumi repeated, leaning away slightly, "What do you want me to do with it?"

"What I want?" Beshimi frowned, "Since when did you care about that, fox! I would like you to do nothing with it! But if _you _want it, it's here for you."

Megumi's pale hand reached for it, her eyes never leaving his face. Not once did his thin pupils leave her's either and his stare was steady as his expression and thoughts was, for once, completely unreadable.

With her fingers she felt for the blade, touching his fingertips first, before finding the cold metal sheath in his rough palms. She slowly pulled it away and grasped it to her chest, her heart beating uncontrollably and thoughts rushing through her blood and brain.

"Thank you," Megumi pursed her lips, dark thoughts overriding what Sano and Sir Ken had ever said to her, a new plan formulating, "I…will use it."

Beshimi's shoulders fell as he exhaled, "If that is what you want to do with it."

She tucked it in her sleeve and bowed her head, "I suppose it could be considered a gift…It's rude not to properly thank a person for a gift, no matter who they are."

Beshimi smirked amusedly, "Even Kanryu?"

"To me," Megumi raised her head, "He is not a person."

Beshimi cackled for a long moment, turning slightly away from her as she blinked. "Why am I not surprised, fox?"

A moment of silence passed before Beshimi said quietly, "I suppose that we'll hardly see each other's disagreeable faces again after this, cutie. So, this is good bye."

"Good bye?" Megumi watched his back slowly float towards the door. She sucked in her lips slightly and lowered her head and her voice, "Yes, then it is goodbye."

"Use the knife as you like," Beshimi roughly shoved the paper door opened, and stepped to the side, staring at the floor, "Now go."

"Wha-what?" She looked through the blackness of the basement, already feeling lost in its shadows. "Are you letting me-?"

"At the top of the stairs, Hannya will meet you," Beshimi frowned, "There is no running away for you, so just do as he says and he'll take you to Kanryu. He wants to talk to you…"

"He would," Megumi said sharply before she rose to her feet, the blade hidden in her sleeve, "Fine."

She started to leave the room, stepping out into the dark shadows of the hallways before she stopped right as she past the short ninja. She spoke steadily, "I will use it, believe me."

"_Aa_…" Beshimi lowered his head as she passed him, shadows covering his eyes. "If ever we see each other again…let it be in hell or another life. Maybe... on better terms..."

Her eyes widened at the ominous words, then she blinked them until they were relaxed again, a final understanding numbing her mind.

"I'm sorry, Beshimi." Megumi softly stepped out the doorway, his hand on the door frame, "Let it be as you hoped for in another life."

* * *

><p>As soon as Megumi left, he let the door roll close. Hyottoko's snores suddenly became louder as his ears adjusted to the otherwise silence.<p>

In another life…let him be at least handsome then. Life would at least be easier if...

One quick rap on the door and the door rattled open, Okashira looking down at him.

"Gah!" Beshimi nearly jumped out of skin, but relaxed, "L-leader…What is it that you nee-?"

"Why did you give Megumi Takani a blade?" Aoshi's cold glare did not leave him, and his voice was heavy as stone, "Hannya was aware of it as well. Did you really think that we'd not know that you were the one that produced it for her? Even if Megumi Takani wanted it only to take her own life, I'm surprised you of all people gave her what she wanted, Beshimi."

The little demon had suspected that Hannya and Leader would know it was him when it came around to that, but he didn't realize it would be so soon, and surely before Megumi had a chance to use it. Still, Okashira was standing before him and demanding to know everything in his silently fierce stare.

"Okashira," Beshimi gulped and then bowed his head, "Megumi didn't ask for it…I-I offered it to her myself."

Aoshi's eyebrows raised, a slight change in his emotion, and his green eyes widened a bit. Not so much in surprise as in curiosity.

"I-" Beshimi continued as the lack of reprimanding from Leader started to scratch at his skin, "She would be miserable, Okashira. She doesn't want- that is- Leader, I may not have been her friend, but even for a time she was mine_._"

The silence that followed was suffocating for the stray cat, but thankfully, merciful Okashira ended it soon enough.

"I understand." Aoshi's normal expressionless face returned, "You are by far the softest of us all…maybe more so than Shikijou."

"No," Beshimi smiled slightly, his lids slightly pulled tight, "If Shikijou became friends with the fox then he wouldn't do anything to make her miserable at all. I'm a terrible friend."

"Shikijou would never put himself in such a position as you had," Aoshi put his hands in his trench coat's pockets, "A very awkward one indeed."

Beshimi slapped the back of his neck and rubbed, "Well…that just makes me the most foolish than."

Aoshi nodded slightly, "Aa, that is how I'd describe you in any case."

"Ack! O-Okashira?" Beshimi moved his hand back in front of him and gasped at the bluntness of his leader, who as far as he had known him was vague and didn't make jokes. Though there was no smile on his face, the Leader continued to mock him.

"Only an idiot would let himself be trapped like that. And not only were you stupid enough to fall for it the first time, you let her escape into the arms of another man, and that said man, defeated you with a tatami mat. Then, when you finally have a chance to rid her from your mind, you give her a knife in a gesture of kindness and don't even tell her what you felt for her."

"F-felt? Okashira I didn't-"

"I'm no fool, Beshimi," Aoshi turned back to the door, "You won't be reprimanded for this but you are never to speak to her again."

"Y-" Beshimi lowered his head as Aoshi's hand touched the paper door, "Y-yes, Leader."

"Good."

The door rattled and thudded into the frame. Aoshi's steps was muffled clacks as it was dulled through the paper and Beshimi lowered himself back to the futon, his body enduring an unexplained aching.

"I'm such a fool."

* * *

><p><strong>End Chapter 12...<strong>

**Next Chapter/The echoes of a Gatling gun rings through a very windy and life-changing night.**

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><p><em><strong>AN: Next chapter is going to be the last! I need some comments to make me continue folks! :D**_


	13. Chapter 13: The End

_**A/N: Kanryu's ugly stupid face : ( Anyone a fan of the Oniwabanshu would hate his guts.**_

* * *

><p><strong>In this chapter: It is… the very end.<strong>

* * *

><p>"Chapter 13: Death Ends It"<p>

* * *

><p>Megumi followed Hannya, his tall form only a few quick steps ahead of her. As they neared Kanryu's door, he disappeared, his ghostly words reaching her ears though she could not see his body.<p>

"Go in, Megumi Takani."

She collected her nerves, then pushed through the doors. Kanryu sat on a chair in the middle of the room, his chin propped on top of his knuckles, a horribly pleased smile on his lips.

"Kanryu," Megumi's red lips smiled back, her eyes having a shine in them. He did not answer, but stared, for a long time before opening his mouth at last, a chuckle coming out first.

"It's so nice to see you back, Megumi. I never doubted that you'd eventually come back home again."

Megumi continued to stare, her face holding a doll's perfect smile.

"I know it is a little sudden." Kanryu used a polite tone, "But do you think you could make some of that new opium right away?" His eyes closed into sharp points and he added, drawing it out, "Please."

Her dark red brown eyes never left his face, but her slightly upturned lips neither opened or made a move to answer. In Megumi's head, wonderful thoughts passed through, dark thoughts, but they brought a smile to her face none the less.

Kanryu stood up and walked towards her, "You're such a rebellious person," His gloved hand met her chin and she lifted her face to his as the business man went on, "But you came back to me because you had no other choice, Miss Megumi."

Once more, Sano's words ran through her mind, the setting sun making the memory already seem like a fantasy, a dream. His hopeful words, they were just that, hope. But hope is useless when there was nothing you could do to truly make the horrible things from her past be erased.

"_But_-" Megumi spoke to Sano in her mind, "_This is the only way that I can repent_."

"I'm prepared," Megumi Takani said darkly, receiving a "That's a good girl" and weaselly laugh from Kanryu in return.

"I'm going to kill you Kanryu Takeda," Megumi had slipped the dagger from her sleeve and brought it up from where she hidden her hand behind her back, "Then kill myself, that is what I'm prepared to do."

He gave a cowardly gasp as she lifted the blade higher over the spot where his stone heart must be, and she threw her entire weight forward to drive the blade into his chest.

Her fingers went light, and she gasped as Hannya reappeared behind her, the dagger in his hand now. His voice was angry and firm when he said, "That's enough."

She looked over her shoulder at the ninja for a brief moment before Kanryu's hand met her face, knocking her to the ground.

"How dare you do that!" He leaned over her body, "Your head got full of hot air because you thought I was being nice. Don't ever underestimate Kanryu Takeda!"

She closed her eyes, her head hurting from the tiles. Kanryu's voice slipped from her ears but before unconsciousness took her, she heard, "I'll kill you…but before I do, I'll torture you slowly until you tell me everything there is to know about the new opium…-"

* * *

><p>When the slap came, so did his temper. Beshimi bit into his forearm wrathfully, his forehead throbbing and his fingers twitching for a tack into Kanryu's stupid forehead. He rushed there from worry for Megumi, because despite all things, she was his 'friend'…once. And now this!<p>

He was still undecided on how exactly he felt about her. It didn't matter now, but all at the same time, even more! It was confusing and made his stomach churn trying to sort through it. This was one puzzle he could never solve, no matter how good he was at doing it. It had him stumped and worried for the woman below.

She laid there, still and outstretched over the tiles. Hannya announced to the pig that Himura had arrived. Hannya took a step back as Kanryu peered out the window himself, his face starting to sweat as the sound of battle reverberated below in the courtyard.

"I don't get it, what's his reason for doing this?" Kanryu nervously stared down into the courtyard as the noises of fighting subsided, "What in gods' name is Battousai the manslayer doing here? What benefit could there be? What does he have to gain by helping this woman?"

Hannya turned his oni-masked face to the entrepreneur, "If Himura the Battousai acted only upon what was beneficial to him, he would be a high ranking officer of the army at this time. Of course…people like you could never understand."

Beshimi sniggered, _damn right_. Kanryu didn't know a thing about honor or integrity or anything that any reasonable warrior held dear. He just cared about money and his shady business! His business that leeched off of human lives and ate away at what little was good of _this_ Meiji society. And of course, as was clear by the easily detectable disgust in Hannya's voice, the skilled demon ninja had nothing but contempt for Kanryu. Which was surprising that he didn't do a better job at hiding it.

Beshimi zoned back to what Kanryu was saying, his attention turned to the Oniwaban spy,"-We're up against the legendary Battousai the manslayer! The situation can't possibly get any-Hyuaahhhh!" His narrow and pointed face turned back to the open window, his body immediately shuddering.

"It's time to settle all this, Kanryu Takeda!" the red headed swordsman's voice met Beshimi's was the fearsome Battousai from the war, and the one that Megumi had fallen in love with, according to Hannya who was of course, never wrong.

The Battousai demanded that the businessman come down and bring 'Megumi Takani', the fox, with him. Kanryu, with sweat dappling his forehead, seemed to recover from his little spell of down right fear, and clapped his hands in an attempt to make things seem like it was going as planned.

"My! It is beyond belief you were able to defeat so many people in such a short amount of time," Kanryu went on, "But it is just what I'd expect from you, Battousai the manslayer. You're simply amazing; I'm in complete awe at your swordsmanship and strength. If you were to join me along with the Oniwaban group, nothing could ever stand in our path!"

He lifted his white gloved hand, his fingers outstretched, and he desperately made an offer, "Because you are the legendary manslayer I will offer you fifty times more than normal, agreed?"

Silence came from below and he quickly added, "Will you except my offer and become my body-"

"Are you coming down or am I coming up?" Kenshin's voice cut the entrepreneur short, "Which will it be?"

Kanryu gasped again, his head slightly flinching backwards, before he leaned out the window, "T-then how about a hundred times more?"

"Two hundred times more?" Kanryu met the silence desperately but still, the swordsman did not waver in his advancement toward the mansion.

"I told you," Hannya sounded a bit annoyed as he reminded Takeda, "He does not act out of personal gain."

"Shut up! I didn't ask for your opinion!" Kanryu looked at the demon before turning his gaze back outside.

No sound still, and eventually Kanryu's nerves caved, "A-alright, you win! I give up , Legendary Manslayer. I'll give you back Megumi Takani."

A brief moment of quiet before Kanryu added, his voice heavy with deceit, "But I need time for preparations! Give me one hour; I give you my word that I'll let her go. But you have got to promise not to come any closer!"

The warrior outside said nothing to this. Beshimi craned his neck out to see the frame of the short man standing outside, and he watched as the manslayer made his way to a light pole, stood in front of it for a moment, before drawing his sword and cutting the concrete base in half and toppling the pole to the ground.

"I'm coming up! And I'll take Miss Megumi myself! Why don't you have a seat and wait Kanryu?"

Kanryu took a cowardly step back and Hannya, in his rare moment of amusement, drawled, "You made him even angrier by using one of your underhand tricks."

"That means you have no alternative but to fight Battousai the manslayer." Kanryu spun from the window and pointed a finger at the spy, "I hope you understand this Hannya! The reason I keep you Oniwaban guys around is for times like this."

Hannya, for the first time, acknowledged Kanryu fully by turning his head to look at him. Beshimi snorted and leaned back from the tile crack to see the slight hints that the spy's irritation was building.

"Unlike your forgiving Leader with Beshimi and Hyottoko, I won't forgive any mistakes!"

As soon as Kanryu was finished he was lifted slightly in the air by his tie, which was being tightly gripped in Hannya's blue gloved hand, "You're the one that needs to understand, Kanryu…our leader is the only one that leads the Oniwaban group. I don't remember swearing allegiance to the likes of you!"

Choking lightly, Kanryu growled, "How dare you!"

"The only one who can give us orders is our Leader," Hannya gripped at the tie harder, "Aoshi Shinomori. And we are always willing to die without hesitation…for our leader."

"And who do you think pays that precious leader of yours a huge sum of money for his services? Do you really think he can refuse my orders, you simple minded goon?" Kanryu tilted his head back and laughed.

Hannya jerked him higher in the air and lowered his voice, bringing Kanryu's face closer to his, "You dirty-!"

"The Battousai will. be. defeated." Aoshi's voice made both men turn their attentions to the door. Shinomori directed a steady stare at Hannya, and the spy clearly acknowledged the Okashira with a deep-voiced, "Leader."

Kanryu pushed himself away from the Oni-spy and he looked at Aoshi grumpily, "Your timing is impeccable."

"However," Aoshi continued mono-toned, "We won't do it for you."

"Huh?"

"We will defeat Battousai the manslayer to prove that the Oniwaban group is the best there is," Aoshi blankly stared at Kanryu's wide face as the businessman turned to him, "How can you say that Aoshi?"

"Money hungry people like you will never understand," Aoshi answered Kanryu's rapidly blinking face, "The Imperialists and the Oniwaban group were on opposing sides during the course of the revolution, but despite our differences we respect that they were willing to die for their ideals."

The Okashira closed his eyes and lowered his chin slightly, "In the Meiji Era, it seems that many of the imperialists have become rotten beyond recognition. But he still seems to carry that old spirit around with him. It's been ten years since we've seen someone like him…"

"…He's a worthy opponent," Aoshi's strong green eyes opened again, "And he must die."

Kanryu lifted his hands, "But naturally your duty to protect me come first!"

Aoshi answered him levelly, "I don't really care what happens to scum like you."

"What do you mean?"

"Their goal is to rescue Megumi Takani," Aoshi looked down at Megumi's limp body, "I'll keep the woman in the observatory on the third floor."

He lifted his head and looked at his loyal ninja, "Hannya, get into position immediately."

Hannya bowed his head and replied quickly, before disappearing in a dash of speed, "Yes sir."

"Well that's great, but what am I supposed to do?" Kanryu yelled at Aoshi who picked up Takani's unmoving body over his shoulder and started to head out the dense European style double doors.

An annoyed face was painted over Aoshi's usually emotionless expression, and he looked over his trench coat clad shoulder, "You can sit here and count your money for all I care, Kanryu." The door creaked shut before a heavy click signaled it's shutting.

Beshimi crawled backwards into the cobwebs and dust that was in between the rafters and tiles. If a battle with the Battousai was beginning, and the title of 'best' could finally be theirs to earn, he should wake up Hyottoko so they both could assist the Okashira in any way that was possible.

* * *

><p><em>Beshimi shifted in his sleep but laid still, his head against the bark of the tree. The silvery sky above sparkled beautifully and for a moment my breath was taken away from me at its humble loveliness. They weren't vain like me, they didn't use anyone. <em>

_His calloused hand slipped from mine, his one opened eye on me as he did so. He was testing me, and I knew it. I stared back at him for a moment before he smirked and slid to the ground, his head rolling to the side in the grass. _

_Beshimi's breathing became heavier and his chest rose and fell steadily under his white shirt. His green coat was hanging off a small branch above our heads and it fluttered in the light breeze. It was a peaceful night, crickets meeting my ears, and his breathing almost making a musical composition with it. _

_It was going to be really hard when I betrayed him. He trusted me now, that was for sure now that he even slept while I had the perfect chance to run! _

_As guilt oozed into my head again for what seemed to be in minute long increments, he rolled over again and his nose bumped into my knees. He breathed in deeply, a smile spreading over his face, and he settled contently against them. He was still as ugly as ever, but he was becoming just a little less so. Or, at least, I was beginning to become used to his oddly arranged face. _

_I touched his head, feeling pity that I would betray this man tomorrow. I decided this in that moment, his trust radiating and asking to be broken. _

_He moved into my palm more and he opened his eyes lightly, "What fox? I'm tired."_

"_You can sleep," I assured him with a smile and a nod, "I'm not going anywhere."_

_He lifted his head and plopped it in my lap, snuggling back into my yukata, "Fine, but if you leave I'll feel you going."_

"_Don't you trust me?" I pushed him off and back onto the ground, "I don't think we have that type of relationship where I'd let you sleep on my lap!"_

_Beshimi smirked and rolled over again, his arms stretching out like a cat, "If that's the way you want it fox. Just don't leave me."_

_He curled his arms under his head and laid stretched out on his stomach. He made a, for a lack of a better word or perhaps my own imagination, purring sound, before snoring lightly. _

_After a while of enviously looking at the stars, they looking down at me disapprovingly, I patted the top of his red brown hair until his eyes flickered and he opened them._

"_Fox." He yawned and looked at the sky, the moon falling lower in the sky. "We still have time."_

"_Why are you so tired anyways?" I frowned slightly, it was boring. He may not be my favorite company but he was my only. If he slept the entire night, then I would just have to sit there until morning._

_He snuggled into my knees again, "You're warm."_

"_That sounds a bit off," I didn't bother to scoot away from him as he did so from my tone, "Have you taken drugs?"_

"_No, no, but I feel like it," He carelessly waved a hand through the air, rolling onto his stomach, and his large eyelids still closed, "Megumi…*yawn* I haven't slept this well in a long while."_

"_You call this sleeping well?" He nodded and I twisted my nose, "Why do you say that?"_

"_I can't be too heavily asleep in case Okashira needs me to be alert for something," Beshimi buried his head into his folded arms, "Sleeping now though feels nice, like I'm floating."_

"_What an odd little man you are."_

Megumi's eyes twitched as she woke up against cushions that belonged to a window seat that stretched along the walls. This would be the second time that night that she woke up in a place that she didn't recognize. She let out a bit of air as she rose up from the seat that and saw Aoshi ahead of her.

He looked at her, his hands in his trench coat pockets, "You're friends from the Kamiya dojo are here. They've been demanding that Kanryu let you go."

"Kenshin and the others?"

He looked ahead at the door, "However, I suggest you not get your hopes up to high. I highly doubt there's much of a chance of them making it up this far. What awaits you isn't rescue I'm afraid, but torture and death from Kanryu."

Megumi stared at his back, and he turned, his hand coming out of his pocket. A dagger clattered against the floor and he spoke when it stopped rattling, "This is the dagger you brought with you. Suffering, or escape, it's up to you to decide." Shinomori walked away and closed the door behind him.

He left her in the silence, the knife staring up at her in his absence. Megumi reached for it, slowly, and sat back down onto the cushioned seat, her fingers twitching.

"Yes, escape…" Megumi drew it out, but the evil gleam off of the blade, the way it glowed in the dark staring at her, reminded her of something and her hand froze.

She didn't deserve a quick escape. Suffering is what she deserved, but still…

* * *

><p>"Er! Wake up, Hyottoko!" Beshimi ran full speed forward and pounced into his fat friend. However, with an unexpected effect, he simply bounced off of the flabby side and continued to roll into the wall with an "Uhn, uhn, uhn" escaping his lips as his legs flipped over his head over and over again until he crashed into the wall.<p>

Popping back up, he rolled up his sleeve and gripped his arm, "Listen here fatty, Okashira is about to go into battle with Battousai the manslayer, the best Imperialist, and claim the title of the best for the Oniwaban! If we don't help-" His stumpy legs jumped onto the roundness of the belly, and he jerked at the short black hair with his fingers in time with his words, "Then, we- will-be-of-no-use-to-the-Okashira!"

"Hrk!mmm," Hyottoko's almond shaped eyes slowly opened, his loud voice roaring, "Eh? Shorty, what do you want?"

"Up and at 'em ugly," Beshimi slapped the fire magic user's forehead repetitively, "Unless you want to miss claiming the title as the best for the Oniwaban!"

"What are you talkin' about?" Hyottoko's massive hand picked him up from the back of his collar, Beshimi's body curling slightly like a cat, "If you are over exaggerating when I could be resting-."

"You can rest plenty when you're dead, Hyottoko! We have to assist the Okashira!" Beshimi kicked the air and wirily jumped out of reach, "Come on, my slow friend, hurry up!"

"Aa," Hyottoko ripped at the bandages, understanding his words, "I come."

"That's better," Beshimi turned to the drawer with the shelf and fished out a leather pouch, tacks rolling around inside it. His best tacks, only his best, to claim the title of the best fighter under Lord Aoshi Shinomori.

"Are ya coming, Short-stuff?" Hyottoko pushed the door out of the way and loudly stomped down the hall.

"I'll get Shikijou! You, Hannya at the front door!" Beshimi darted forward and squeezed past the thick short legs, "We all have to help Leader!"

"Of course!" Hyottoko laughed and smiled gummily, "The title of the best is as good as ours!"

* * *

><p>The wind howled outside the window. Megumi, listening to that sad and mournful sound, clutched the metal handle of the dagger harder.<p>

"_Do you still want to repent?" Beshimi stuck his hand through his clothes and pulled out a sheathed dagger._

_Megumi swallowed as the knife was laid across the man's open palms, "I do."_

"_Then take it," Beshimi held out his hands, his head dipping a little._

_Why?" Megumi watched his fingers tighten around the sheath._

"_Do with it as you like, fox," Beshimi uncurled his bony digits, "But remember that I'm the one who gave it to you."_

"_Why?" Megumi repeated, leaning away slightly, "What do you want me to do with it?"_

"_What I want?" Beshimi frowned, "Since when did you care about that, fox! I would like you to do nothing with it! But if you want it, it's here for you."_

_Megumi's pale hand reached for it, her eyes never leaving his face. Never once did his thin pupils leave her face either and his stare was steady as his expression and thoughts was, for once, completely unreadable. _

_With her fingers she felt for the blade, touching his fingertips first, before finding the cold metal sheath in his rough palms. She slowly pulled it away and grasped it to her chest, her heart beating uncontrollably and thoughts rushing through her blood and brain._

Now what was left for her to do? Killing herself seemed to be the only option. That or get tortured to death, but in the end it was all the same. She would die and that was the only fate she faced.

Who would Kanryu have torture her? The Oniwaban? That seemed to horrible to imagine, their faces from around the dinner table flashing behind her eyelids, but they had already proven to her that they were dangerous. It was best she never forget that.

Death was imminent, but with shaking hands, she had to decide how it should come.

Or, she closed her eyes against tears, she could trust Kenshin and Sano. They were on her side, and they were there to rescue her. As long as they lived, she was safe.

* * *

><p>"Shikijou!" Beshimi pranced around the muscular body, his feet hopping in the air with anticipation, "Stand up or never call yourself a man again!"<p>

"What are yapping about?" Shikijou put a hand to his forehead. He hadn't even been moved from the fight with that Sanosuke kid. He was laid out in the dust and Beshimi was jumping around him, and in various and annoying ways, coaxing him to get himself and his aching head up. Finally irritated enough, he growled towards the shorter ninja, "I don't think you should be yowling so late at night, Beshimi."

"Yowling? Come on, are you going to miss claiming the title of the best?" Beshimi leaned down, then smiled at his face. Headache now gone, Shikijou was staring wide-eyed and opened mouthed towards his coy expression.

"You better not be messing with me, shrimp!" Shikijou's loud voice roared happily.

Beshimi leaned back slightly and crossed his arms, "You said that the bird head was a worthy opponent? Well, the Battousai is fighting upstairs now as we speak to rescue the pretty little fox. Lord Aoshi may be fighting him this very minute, Shikijou, so stand up and let's go!"

"I got you, I got you," Shikijou stood and followed Beshimi out the door as he asked, "Where are we going?"

"To our Lord Aoshi!"

* * *

><p>"Beshimi!" Hannya's voice, so recognizable from anywhere called from one of the halls beside him, "Okashira is in the ballroom."<p>

"Then let's go there!" Beshimi dashed through the halls ahead of everyone, making sharp turns as needed, and headed toward the stairs, "To the second floor!"

Hannya was several steps behind him, and again, Beshimi was but a small blur ahead of him. Beshimi jumped up the steps by five's and barely touched the wood at all. The oni-spy darted up the stairs calling to his back, "Beshimi, I support us getting there as fast as we can, but if you run at your fastest in a such a small area you are going to lose your foot-."

As if on cue, Beshimi's wood sandals clunked into the step corner, gravity forcing him backwards. He rolled down the steps to the bottom where Shikijou and Hyottoko passed him as they ran up the stairs themselves.

Hannya didn't stop either, "Come Beshimi!"

"Hnnn," Beshimi rubbed his head and leaped up, taking the steps again at his dangerous speed, "You don't have to tell me!"

His feet, in a streak that was Beshimi, led him to the front again.

"Beshimi the ballroom," Hannya skidded in front of the heavy doors while Beshimi skidded to a forced stop and his feet fumbled with the smooth surface of the hallway tile. Crashing into a wall, he rolled over his head and, back on his feet, recovered back and jumped to the crack that made the center of the double doors as Hyottoko pushed the them open. The four loyal Oniwaban group members, tense and ready to fight along side their leader, standing in the doorway.

"Wha-He's here?" Yahiko flinched before he noticed it wasn't who he thought it was, whoever it was.

Okashira stood up from where he was laying on the ground, staring fiercely at the Battousai for a long intense moment.

Beshimi raised a tack into his palm while the other's raised their fists as they saw their master stiffen.

But instead of an order, they saw his arm lift up to stop them from doing anything at all.

"Why didn't you finish me off?" Aoshi, with a slight bit of blood from the corner of his mouth, directed the question at Kenshin.

"I'm a wander now that I am. I am not a manslayer anymore," Kenshin violet eyes didn't leave Leader's face, "Aoshi why are you so obsessed with being the best?" The wanderer took a step to the Okashira, asking, "In these times of peace, don't you think that being the best warrior means almost nothing? There should be plenty of other ways to use the skills that you have."

The Okashira said nothing as Himura stared at him for an answer. Beshimi's eyes went to the ground and behind him he sensed Hyottoko and Shikijou looking away. It was their selfish dream, but the swordsman was right. It meant nothing in this day and age…but still, but still...

"It meant something to us," Hannya's deep voice answered instead, Kenshin's eyes widened a bit and he turned to the spy.

Hannya continued bitterly, "Some of the other Oniwaban group members were able to find new ways of life. But look at us! There is no place in this society for men like us, who's only skills are fighting."

Shikijou looked ahead again, allowing Hannya to say nothing more, "But despite that fact, our leader never deserted us. He even turned down offers to be a big army official for the new regime, just for our sakes."

"But I was the one who-" Leader sounded almost sad, regretful. The tone flung the words into Beshimi's chest like a sharp stone. Aoshi continued after a pause, "-made you into members of the Oniwaban group. And the least I could do was make sure your names would carry the reputation of being the very best there ever was."

Kenshin's friends stared at them. Beshimi felt every nerve tingle with a warmth, a shock. His name…for all he had been fighting for it was for Aoshi's name. It was for the Oniwaban group itself. But never individually his name. But…that's what Leader had been fighting for. His eyes stung again, Aoshi was the only Leader that would ever make him feel this intense loyalty and he knew it. Never would he follow anyone.

"Battousai," Aoshi's voice caught Kenshin's attention, "Finish me off."

The group gasped and Hannya let a surprised cry slip from his mouth, "Leader!"

"It's alright," Aoshi forced them to relax. He turned his head and looked over his shoulder at them all, his green eyes extremely soft. "Enough."

_Leader…what are you doing? This can't be the end…it can't be! I won't accept that! _Beshimi couldn't force anything out, nor could he change his expression from his sad surprise. His pupils were pinpricks in the white of his large eyes. Okashira turned back to Himura.

"Finish me off now Battousai, because if you don't, I promise I will continue to come after you for as long as I can…"

"That's fine," the manslayer answered in a soft voice as well, "Keep challenging me until you are satisfied."

"Kenshin?" His woman behind him gasped, but he seemingly ignored her as he went on.

"However, this is between you and me Aoshi. I won't allow you to involve anyone else in this fight."

The Okashira looked at him, staring into the purple eyes that softly requested the duel remain between them.

_Say no Leader! Let's us help you claim the best! _

Beshimi opened his mouth to say it-

**_Ratatatatatatatatatatata!_**

"It can't be?" Kenshin whispered as the smoke from the destroyed door cleared away to show Kanryu among the splinters, laughing.

"I'd be happy finish you off Aoshi. Along with the rest of your obsolete Oniwaban group, the Battousai and all~ of his friends here."

Yahiko blinked, "What the heck is that?"

"It's a Gatling gun," Kanryu took a gloved hand from his pocket and patted the top of the weapon, "The very latest in fact. It is no longer the age of swords you know. Ha ha ha ha!"

"Kanryu…" Aoshi harshly whispered and the crazed man moved behind the gun, gripping the handle.

"Why don't I demonstrate it for you right now!"

* * *

><p><strong><em>Ratatatatatatatatatata!<em>**

Megumi jumped to her feet at the monstrous sound that continued a floor below her, her eyes staring at the locked door _That noise…_

Memories from the Aizu war flooded back into her mind. Fire and horrible weapons, their awesome power destroyer her father's patients to nothing.

Her eyes widened "It sounds like…"

**_Ratatatatatatatatata!_**

Beshimi dashed to the side as the gun's point started to fly towards him. Hyottoko ducked under the line of fire but his barrel of oil burst into pieces when the bullets shot into it and it exploded on his back.

Kenshin grabbed Yahiko and ran in the length of the ballroom to avoid the rapidly fired bullets that followed his heels. Everyone scattered and ran in all directions to avoid the crazed rapid fire as Kanryu aimlessly shot at their running feet, over their heads, and anywhere, all the while screaming like a maniac, "So how do you like it!?"

His hand never left the crank as he kept turning it, "This model can fire two hundred bullets in one minute!"

_I hate bullets! _Any projectile, let it be arrows, kunai, shuriken, or needles, and he could dodge it with his speed. Beshimi could even catch them as they came at him, but bullets were too fast for even his sharp eyes to see. And this thing fired them even faster!

"That creep is missing on purpose so he can kill us slowly!" Sano yelled and ran like the others with Kaoru under his arm.

Shikijou dove to the ground with a grunt as bullets flew over his head and into the wall.

"Damn you!" Hannya cursed and smoothly lurched forward, "Where did you get that thing, Kanryu?"

"You'll address me as 'Lord' Kanryu you low life gorilla!" Kanryu, his temper flaring, aimed directly at the Oni-ninja and the crank turned, the bullets bouncing off of the floor as it made their way toward him, getting closer.

For once in his life, he froze.

Okashira knocked his shoulder into Hannya's side and knocked him flat on his face away from the line, stray bullets ripping through his own legs as a consequence.

"Hah!" Beshimi looked over his back as the firing stopped and the light thud of Hannya hitting the ground met his ears. The others gasped as well and within moments they were all at Aoshi's side.

"Leader!"

He gritted his teeth in pain, sitting up on his knees and holding back his hand from gripping the oozing holes. He grunted in his effort to bypass the pain and, with anger, he raised his head to glare at Kanryu.

The businessmen smirked, before reaching for a cigar from his pocket and sticking it in his mouth, "Just so everyone knows…"

"…I have no intention of ending up an underground opium dealer forever," His hand lowered and he searched for a light, finding one quickly and flicking the match to flame from the matchbook. He puffed on the cigar as he lit it and he raised his head, "I was planning to establish enough capital with the new opium and then start to rake in some real money by selling modern weapons, like the newest Gatling guns."

"You mean you want to be a merchant of death!" Kaoru screamed as the men, and the boy Yahiko, gritted their teeth, infuriated.

"Don't tell me," Kenshin's voice grew an edge that was ragged like a saw, "That you would go to such lengths to get a hold of money that you'd even sacrifice human life to feed your hunger for it?"

Kanryu took the cigar out and blew the excess smoke from his nose, "Think about it this way, Battousai. If you have enough money than you have in your possession more power than a sword could ever give you. Just like-"

His eyes briefly lowered to the weapon before him, "This little Gatling gun."

Kanryu lifted back up his head and smiled maliciously, "Understand? Money is the proof that one possesses power. I'm truly the best warrior here! AH ha ha ha ha!"

_That son of a bitch! _Beshimi felt everything, every demon and evil emotion fly into his chest. _A warrior? I had nothing and I became a better warrior than you! _He mentally screamed, his tightly clenched teeth once again refusing to open as he ground them in his anger, _And Leader is a thousand times the better warrior, you bastard! _

"And I believe you mocked me earlier leader," Kanryu's head lowered from his laugh, his hands reaching for the crank, "You'll be the fist one to go-"

He spun the Gatling gun to point directly at the Okashira, "My unfaithful servant!"

_****_RATATATATATATATATATA!_**! **_**pipt! pipt! pipt!**

"Hah!" Beshimi gasped and raised an arm instinctively. Shikijou's yowl of pain attacked the groups hearts and left an open wound in it. The bullets kept coming, but Shikijou's strong built back stayed erect and he did not fall to let the fire go to their Leader or the rest of them.

A clatter of the last shell of the onslaught falling to the floor sounded and then, horribly, Leader's quivering breath was heard, and through his shaking bottom lip he slowly found the word, the name, "S-Shikijou?"

"Leader…" Shikijou sounded weak, one eye closed as he stared down, "Don't g-give me that look…because…it doesn't suit ya at all. I'm…glad that these old muscles I got… thanks to my training as a member of the Oniwaban group f- finally came in handy for something…"

The man, grunting one last time, fell to his knees, and breathed heavily for a few more moments, his powerful arms hanging loosely as his sides as he, even then, stood tall and proud. His lion's mane fell back behind his head as his eyes went blank, dying with a look of a magnificent lion that lost for the very last time.

Aoshi croaked, "Shikijou…"

"So how wants to be next, huh?" Kanryu, his hand still on the crank, screamed. Leader growled, his face tightening in every facial feature as he glared at their former employer.

Hyottoko, his fiery temper flaring, ran forward and toward the gun.

_Fool! _Beshimi sped behind him, thinking fast and in the most unexpected ways. The tacks in his hands weren't the only attribute that Lord Aoshi had seen in him after all. His twisted mind and speed was something that not even Okashira, old and now, could overpower and he was proving it now.

_You're death will not be in vain, friend! _Beshimi narrowed his eyes and got as close as he could to Hyottoko's back. _  
><em>

"You're the one who's going to die!" Hyottoko took a breath before-

_****_RATATATATATATA!_****_

-Into the left side of his chest. Blood exploded from his back in streaks of bright red in the air.

"Hyottoko!" Leader yelled and as he fell, he gave on last toothless smile as he felt a small form press against his back, a rasp whispering behind him.

"I'll never forget you, friend..."

Hyottoko's body thudded into the floor with a crash that resembled the very mighty thunder that exploded after the flash of lightning. Beshimi propelled himself off of his comrade's back, a plain tack tight in his palm and his thin pupils thinner as he focused on one target.

"Take this!" His thumb pressed into the outside of the tack, the coward making a squealing sound before turning the gun toward him.

_**RA!-**_

A piercing pain shot through his chest. His thumb pressed into the tack one last time.

_Not Kanryu! G-gun…_ Beshimi's tangled mind thought in quick bursts as he refocused on a second target, his eyes narrowing again. He flicked the tack with the last bit of pure strength he'd feel and it clattered into the belt before-

**_-TATATATATATATATA!_**

A harsh scream was torn from his lips as the bullets rapidly flying into his body forced him through their air back to the hard ballroom floor.

* * *

><p>"Beshimi?" Megumi looked up, the knife at her throat, "Was that-?"<p>

Hope was gone with the sound of the Gatling gun. No man ever survived it. The screams of death could have been from either Kenshin or Sano, but the last one that met her ears.

It was hard to forget a voice like his. It sounded like when Sano and Sir Ken both broke his nose by punching him though a paper door. How long ago that seemed now…though just a few days had passed since then.

She remembered with a pang in her chest how she didn't worry because she knew he'd be fine somehow.

But the Gatling Gun… and his scream…he wasn't fine now. She knew it.

Her knees shook before giving out entirely. She fell on the seat again, and sat there, shivering and feeling ice cold as the wind howled heartlessly outside.

"I'm so sorry, Beshimi," She gripped her own shoulders, no tears falling down her cheeks but a great emptiness in her chest, "May you have a better life in the next then you had in this."

* * *

><p>"Beshimi!" Leader, like with the other loyal members that was called before him, yelled his name to him.<p>

"Ewauh!" He felt his back hit the floor with much more force than he first expected. Beshimi felt a wave a pain as the wounds on his back struck the floor and he gasped for a little bit of breath to return, his entire torso punctured with holes.

"Huhh," Hyottoko strained to gather his breath as well, "I'm…sorry for…letting ya down…"

Beshimi tilted his head back, the top of his skull pressed hard against the floor, his voice was cracking, no breath ever reaching his lungs, "I guess-we…just couldn't help you when-…you needed us the-mossst-."

The rest of his sentence died as his body forced out the very last of the contents in his lungs. His last breath was exhaled in a gasp, the pain disappearing into numbness. His eyes drooped closed and his head fell to the side. Though he could still feel pain, it was light and almost far away, like a memory. He was tired, more tired than he had ever been in his life, but a nostalgic feeling hit him. It was a warm night, a light breeze, a fox's warm lap under his head, and a hand in his hair, pushing the top of it with an annoyed pressure.

_I don't think we have that type of relationship where I'd let you sleep on my lap!_

It was floating…

* * *

><p>"Die Battousai!" Kanryu turned the crank again, he could hear it. It's turning the bullets. It was pretty dull though…it was kinda hard to hear over the crickets.<p>

__Ratatatatatatatata_!_

**_Kriiii, kriiiii, krriiii, kriii, kriiiiii, kriiiii, krriiiiiiii, kriiiiii, kriiiiiiiii, kriiiiii, kriiiiiiii, kriiiiiii, kriiiiiii, kriiii._**

Then everything went silent except one thing, **clunk**.

His tack…in the belt…stalled it…

No more shots, that was it.

He opened his eyes, no longer feeling the grass underneath him or the smell of the fox near by. It was just pain now. Beshimi opened his eyes wide and his clenched teeth pressed even harder into each other, locking his jaw completely and not even allowing him to say his final words that he said with satisfaction in his mind.

_A stain on the Oniwaban, my ass._

His vision went, pain along with it, and his eyes were white.

* * *

><p><strong>Death End's It.<strong>

* * *

><p>"Tale of a Tack"<strong><br>**


End file.
